An article in HealthAffairs says, among other things:

“Despite increased awareness over its scope and implication, little progress has been made in explaining—and still less, reducing—unwarranted variation. Successfully doing so will be necessary to achieve the shared goals of better health, higher quality care, and lower overall costs.”

“Policies that address variation must target decision-making, not geography. Analyses of physician-level variation offer a novel, nimble, and adaptable method for extending variations research into the local practice environments in which patients and physicians make care decisions. Furthermore, these data can be calculated at the provider and the facility level even without the use of large datasets or complex statistical models, delivering actionable information to local administrators and practice leaders.”