Table 2. Intensity with which physicians treated their patients, by market area.
| Market area | RVU's per capita Medicare | Intensity RVU's per Medicare patient | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| |||||
| Primary care physicians | CV | General surgeons | CV | ||
| Pontiac | 18.69 | 8.15 (282) | 62.2 | 12.62 (69) | 67.9 |
| Traverse City | 13.01 | 5.69 (42) | 28.8 | 8.12 (13) | 39.9 |
| Lansing | 13.62 | 5.57 (81) | 54.4 | 9.68 (12) | 48.1 |
| Ann Arbor | 14.46 | 6.15 (126) | 42.1 | 8.08 (43) | 43.5 |
| Detroit | 19.86 | 7.70 (550) | 53.8 | 7.78 (157) | 41.0 |
| Muskegon | 15.20 | 5.99 (59) | 59.6 | 10.60 (9) | 29.0 |
| Flint | 18.84 | 7.30 (163) | 76.0 | 8.62 (38) | 52.3 |
| Kalamazoo | 13.16 | 6.03 (108) | 27.2 | 8.26 (42) | 39.5 |
| Petoskey | 12.24 | 8.68 (22) | 18.1 | 7.72 (9) | 27.5 |
| St. Joseph | 10.54 | 6.59 (18) | 26.0 | 8.33 (9) | 36.4 |
| Grand Rapids | 12.27 | 5.82 (147) | 38.5 | 9.50 (64) | 68.9 |
| Saginaw | 14.44 | 7.50 (84) | 62.2 | 8.66 (19) | 46.5 |
| Warren | 18.63 | 7.02 (148) | 43.3 | 12.80 (49) | 86.4 |
| Marquette | 9.83 | 5.94 (51) | 30.5 | 7.11 (18) | 40.2 |
| Bay City | 14.15 | 5.86 (46) | 27.7 | 8.05 (13) | 30.3 |
| Weighted State mean | 16.15 | 7.22 (1927) | 54.8 | 9.15 (564) | 63.7 |
| Coefficient of variation | 21.3 | 14.8 | — | 18.9 | — |
NOTES: RVU's are relative value units; CV is the coefficient of variation. The values in the CV columns measure variation within markets. The values in the CV row measure variation between markets. Numbers in parentheses indicate sample sizes.
SOURCE: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan: Data from Blue Shield and Medicare Part B master files, 1980.