Microsoft’s Precision Population Health Group Publishes Comparison of Fee-For-Service and Medicare Advantage Rates Using CareJourney Data

February 3, 2021

Despite over a decade of progress made in advancing value-based care, healthcare utilization variation has persisted and remains a major challenge across the country. Higher healthcare spending has not resulted in better outcomes. In an effort to better understand gaps in care, Microsoft’s Precision Population Health Group recently published a publicly available dashboard that helps explore the geographic variation in fee-for-service (FFS) and Medicare Advantage (MA) demographics, procedure rates, and relationships with economic disparities.

The data, covering years 2011-2018, was analyzed and provided by CareJourney to help answer questions including:

  1. Where are the elective surgery rates the highest for traditional Medicare FFS and MA enrollees?
  2. Who is insured by Medicare FFS and MA and has the population changed?
  3. Are there relationships between poverty/distressed community index and procedure rates for FFS and MA?