This Health Affairs article by Baker, Fisher, and Wennberg on a study of variations across California hospitals in hospital resource use for chronically ill patients covered by Medicare HMOs and private insurers found substantial variation in all of the coverage groups studied.

This Health Affairs study by Wennberg et al. shows that care for chronically ill seniors costs Medicare four times more at some California hospitals than others but results in no better care or patient satisfaction. Also five commentaries from Baucus, Priselac, Reinhardt, Schaeffer and McMurtry, and Straube.