Table 4.

Associations of Quintile Costs with Selected Service Mix and Patient Health Factors

	Ave. Episode Cost	Annual Prevalence	Ave. Modified HCC Score	% Episodes Ending in Death	Episode Includes Hospitalization	Episode Includes Surgery	% Specialist Visits	Percent % Physician Costs Testing/Procedural
Quintiles formed by specific episode risk-adjusted costs
Bacterial lung infection	+M			N/A	+M	+M
Inflam. of the esophagus	+M	+		N/A	+	+		+M
Heart disease	+M		−	+	+M	+M
Jt. degen. knee/lower leg	+M		−		+M	+M		+M
Jt. degen. back or neck	+M	+	−		+M	+M
COPD/asthma	+M			+	+M	+M
Cataract	+M	−M				+M		+M
Diabetes	+M		+M	+		+M	+
Nonmalig. prostrate neoplasm	+M				+	+M	−
Chronic sinusitis	+M				+	+M	+	+
Quintiles formed by total beneficiary risk-adjusted costs
Bacterial lung infection	+	+	+M	N/A	+		+M	−
Inflam. of the esophagus		+	+M	N/A		−	+M	+
Heart disease		+M	+M	−		−	+	+
Jt. degen. knee/lower leg	−	+	+M		−	−		−
Jt. degen. back or neck		+M	+M		−		+M
COPD/asthma		+M	+M				+M
Cataract			+M	+
Diabetes	+M		+M		+	+	+M
Nonmalig. prostrate neoplasm		+M	+M				+	+
Chronic sinusitis			+M	+			+M	+

+ or − indicate the direction of the association with episode specific or total costs and that the mean among beneficiaries in the highest cost quintile of sites is significantly different from the mean among beneficiaries in the lowest cost quintile. M indicates that the relationship is monotonically rising or falling across quintiles. HCC, hierarchical condition category.