# CMS Medicare Geographic Variation (per-capita cost + utilization by geography)

`medicare_silver.fact_medicare_geo_variation` · Medicare Advantage, Part D, Medicaid · status live · 37,000 rows

The CMS Medicare Geographic Variation PUF — Medicare FFS standardized per-capita cost and utilization by geography and year (National / State / County), curated to the high-value subset: population + demographics, total standardized per-capita payment, per-service-category standardized per-capita cost (IP, OP, ASC, SNF, HH, hospice, E&M, procedures, tests, imaging, DME, FQHC/RHC, ambulance), and key utilization (IP stays /1,000, readmission %, ER visits /1,000, imaging events /1,000). THE medical geographic-variation benchmark — how Medicare spend per beneficiary varies by market (the cost counterpart to the drug geo-variation we already had).

**Grain.** One row per (year, bene_geo_level, bene_geo_code, bene_age_level) — National/State/County.

| column | type | meaning |
|---|---|---|
| year | int |  |
| bene_geo_level | string |  |
| bene_geo_desc | string |  |
| bene_geo_code | string |  |
| bene_age_level | string |  |
| benes_total_cnt | double |  |
| benes_ffs_cnt | double |  |
| benes_ma_cnt | double |  |
| ma_participation_rate | double |  |
| bene_avg_age | double |  |
| bene_female_pct | double |  |
| bene_dual_pct | double |  |
| tot_mdcr_pymt_pc | double |  |
| tot_mdcr_stdzd_pymt_pc | double |  |
| acute_readmission_pct | double |  |
| er_visits_per_1000 | double |  |
| ip_stdzd_pymt_pc | double |  |
| ip_stays_per_1000 | double |  |
| op_stdzd_pymt_pc | double |  |
| op_visits_per_1000 | double |  |
| asc_stdzd_pymt_pc | double |  |
| snf_stdzd_pymt_pc | double |  |
| snf_stays_per_1000 | double |  |
| hh_stdzd_pymt_pc | double |  |
| hospice_stdzd_pymt_pc | double |  |
| em_stdzd_pymt_pc | double |  |
| procedures_stdzd_pymt_pc | double |  |
| tests_stdzd_pymt_pc | double |  |
| imaging_stdzd_pymt_pc | double |  |
| imaging_events_per_1000 | double |  |
| dme_stdzd_pymt_pc | double |  |
| fqhc_rhc_stdzd_pymt_pc | double |  |
| ambulance_stdzd_pymt_pc | double |  |
| observed_period | date |  |
| asserted_at | date |  |
| effective_period_start | date |  |
| effective_period_end | date |  |
| cms_vintage_sequence | int |  |
| parse_revision | int |  |
| parser_artifact_hash | string |  |
| source_url | string |  |
| sha256_content_hash | string |  |
| source_id | string |  |
| is_current | boolean |  |
| bronze_object_key | string |  |
| s3_version_id | string |  |
| vintage_tag | string |  |
| drug_source_version_id | string |  |

Query it: `query_substrate` with `SELECT ... FROM medicare_silver.fact_medicare_geo_variation WHERE ... LIMIT 100`; read `describe_data_source("medicare_silver.fact_medicare_geo_variation")` first.