Understanding Drivers of Healthcare Spending

The Peterson Center on Healthcare works with academic partners to produce localized, data-driven insights on health spending and outcomes. Data collected at the local level reveals new findings that national figures may not capture, enabling decision makers to develop targeted policies for improving healthcare performance.

Across the United States, we are lacking healthcare performance data and evidence at the local level.

The Peterson Center on Healthcare and academic and research partners from across the country offer healthcare stakeholders and policymakers data-driven insights on local healthcare performance.

The Center supports the work of the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) to generate localized data throughout the United States. With support from the Center and Gates Ventures, IHME created the first nationwide county-level dataset of U.S. health expenditures, utilization, and value. The dataset enables local health systems to benchmark spending and performance metrics against other counties or states, offering policymakers valuable insights into the drivers of year-to-year healthcare spending growth to make informed spending decisions that improve healthcare.

Peterson-IHME Research Reveals Variation in Healthcare Spending

IHME Study Shows Dramatic Variation in Healthcare Spending Across U.S. States

Research from IHME, funded by the Center, revealed significant variations in healthcare spending across the United States, ranging from $7,250 to $14,500 per person in 2019. Policymakers in states with higher healthcare spending can learn from lower spending states about how to deliver healthcare more efficiently and cost-effectively.

Further Reading

Prices for COVID-19 Testing

In this analysis, we use various data sources to look at prices for COVID-19 tests performed in an outpatient clinical setting and at home.