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Medicare Geographic Variation - by National, State & County

Published by Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics (OEDA) | U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | Catalog Last Checked: September 28, 2026 at 08:31 PM
The Medicare Geographic Variation by National, State & County dataset provides information on the geographic differences in the use and quality of health care services for the Original Medicare population. This dataset contains demographic, spending, use, and quality indicators at the state level (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) and the county level. Spending is standardized to remove geographic differences in payment rates for individual services as a source of variation. In general, total standardized per capita costs are less than actual per capita costs because the extra payments Medicare made to hospitals were removed, such as payments for medical education (both direct and indirect) and payments to hospitals that serve a disproportionate share of low-income patients. Standardization does not adjust for differences in beneficiaries’ health status.

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Complete Metadata
@id https://data.cms.gov/data-api/v1/dataset/6219697b-8f6c-4164-bed4-cd9317c58ebc/data
@type DatasetSeries
accessLevel public
accessRights public
accrualPeriodicity annually
bureauCode 
[
  "009:38"
]
contactPoint 
[
  {
    "fn": "PDAG Data Products - OEDA",
    "@type": "Kind",
    "hasEmail": "mailto:PDAG_Data_Products@cms.hhs.gov"
  }
]
describedBy 
{
  "@type": "Distribution",
  "title": "Medicare Geographic Variation - by National, State & County data dictionary",
  "mediaType": "application/pdf",
  "downloadURL": "https://data.cms.gov/sites/default/files/2026-05/267755af-8e26-4bcd-a3ea-fef41c96b7fc/2014-2024%20Original%20Medicare%20Geographic%20Variation%20Data%20Dictionary.pdf"
}
description The Medicare Geographic Variation by National, State & County dataset provides information on the geographic differences in the use and quality of health care services for the Original Medicare population. This dataset contains demographic, spending, use, and quality indicators at the state level (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) and the county level. Spending is standardized to remove geographic differences in payment rates for individual services as a source of variation. In general, total standardized per capita costs are less than actual per capita costs because the extra payments Medicare made to hospitals were removed, such as payments for medical education (both direct and indirect) and payments to hospitals that serve a disproportionate share of low-income patients. Standardization does not adjust for differences in beneficiaries’ health status.
first 
{
  "@id": "https://data.cms.gov/data-api/v1/dataset/6219697b-8f6c-4164-bed4-cd9317c58ebc/data-viewer",
  "@type": "Dataset",
  "title": "Medicare Geographic Variation - by National, State & County : 2024-01-01",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics (OEDA)",
    "@type": "Organization",
    "subOrganizationOf": [
      {
        "name": "Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)",
        "@type": "Organization"
      }
    ]
  },
  "identifier": "https://data.cms.gov/data-api/v1/dataset/6219697b-8f6c-4164-bed4-cd9317c58ebc/data-viewer",
  "description": "The Medicare Geographic Variation by National, State & County dataset provides information on the geographic differences in the use and quality of health care services for the Original Medicare population. This dataset contains demographic, spending, use, and quality indicators at the state level (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) and the county level. Spending is standardized to remove geographic differences in payment rates for individual services as a source of variation. In general, total standardized per capita costs are less than actual per capita costs because the extra payments Medicare made to hospitals were removed, such as payments for medical education (both direct and indirect) and payments to hospitals that serve a disproportionate share of low-income patients. Standardization does not adjust for differences in beneficiaries’ health status.",
  "contactPoint": {
    "fn": "PDAG Data Products - OEDA",
    "@type": "Kind",
    "hasEmail": "mailto:PDAG_Data_Products@cms.hhs.gov"
  }
}
identifier https://data.cms.gov/data-api/v1/dataset/6219697b-8f6c-4164-bed4-cd9317c58ebc/data
keyword 
[
  "Counties",
  "Health Care Use & Payments",
  "Health Equity",
  "Medicare",
  "National",
  "Original Medicare",
  "States & Territories"
]
landingPage 
{
  "@type": "Document",
  "title": "Medicare Geographic Variation - by National, State & County landing page",
  "accessURL": "https://data.cms.gov/summary-statistics-on-use-and-payments/medicare-geographic-comparisons/medicare-geographic-variation-by-national-state-county"
}
language 
[
  "en"
]
last 
{
  "@id": "https://data.cms.gov/data-api/v1/dataset/6219697b-8f6c-4164-bed4-cd9317c58ebc/data-viewer",
  "@type": "Dataset",
  "title": "Medicare Geographic Variation - by National, State & County : 2024-01-01",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics (OEDA)",
    "@type": "Organization",
    "subOrganizationOf": [
      {
        "name": "Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)",
        "@type": "Organization"
      }
    ]
  },
  "identifier": "https://data.cms.gov/data-api/v1/dataset/6219697b-8f6c-4164-bed4-cd9317c58ebc/data-viewer",
  "description": "The Medicare Geographic Variation by National, State & County dataset provides information on the geographic differences in the use and quality of health care services for the Original Medicare population. This dataset contains demographic, spending, use, and quality indicators at the state level (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) and the county level. Spending is standardized to remove geographic differences in payment rates for individual services as a source of variation. In general, total standardized per capita costs are less than actual per capita costs because the extra payments Medicare made to hospitals were removed, such as payments for medical education (both direct and indirect) and payments to hospitals that serve a disproportionate share of low-income patients. Standardization does not adjust for differences in beneficiaries’ health status.",
  "contactPoint": {
    "fn": "PDAG Data Products - OEDA",
    "@type": "Kind",
    "hasEmail": "mailto:PDAG_Data_Products@cms.hhs.gov"
  }
}
programCode 
[
  "009:000"
]
publisher 
{
  "name": "Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics (OEDA)",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "subOrganizationOf": [
    {
      "name": "Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)",
      "@type": "Organization"
    }
  ]
}
references 
[
  "https://data.cms.gov/sites/default/files/2026-05/Original%20Medicare%20Geographic%20Variation%20Public%20Use%20File%20Methods%20Paper.pdf"
]
sourceCatalog https://data.cms.gov/data.json
sourceSite data.cms.gov
temporal 
[
  {
    "@type": "PeriodOfTime",
    "endDate": "2024-12-31",
    "startDate": "2024-01-01"
  }
]
theme 
[
  "Medicare"
]
title Medicare Geographic Variation - by National, State & County

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