Houston Business Journal - By Monica Perin
Published: 08-05-08
Texas is third behind Florida and California in spending Medicare dollars and some Texas counties are among the highest in the nation according to a study by the National Center for Policy Analysis.
Medicare the federal insurance program for the elderly and the disabled spent $7208 per beneficiary on average in 2005.
In Texas counties however average spending was $7738. Seven Texas counties spent more than $10000.
In Harris County spending was nearly $1200 per retiree greater than expected based on the county’s Medicare population.
Statewide Medicare spending was $1.3 billion above the amount that could be explained by either patient characteristics or cost conditions. Texas has more unexplained spending than any other state authors of the study said.
“There are definite regional pockets of low- and high-cost Medicare spending” said Andrew Rettenmaier an economist and co-author of the study. “Other causes besides those we studied are at play.”
While health economists tend to view geographical variations in spending as a source of waste these results may not be bad from a Texas point of view.
“There may be a silver lining in this for some Texas communities” said NCPA president John Goodman.
“Texas gets far less than its fair share from Medicaid the federal-state health program for the poor. Maybe we are making up the shortfall with extra Medicare dollars.”
