BORDER-CROSSING ADJUSTMENT AND PERSONAL HEALTH-CARE SPENDING BY STATE

This article presents the results of a pioneering effort by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) to measure interstate border cro ssing for services used by Medicare and non-Medicare beneficiaries. A major focus is to provide estimates of per capita expenditures by Stat e for individual services. Such estimates are not possible without adj ustment for interstate border-crossing flows. This is HCFA's first att empt to furnish a unified per capita personal health care expenditures data base comprising all services and covering total population. The study also analyzes interstate differences in expenditure flows by com puting rates of inflow and outflow of expenditures, and highlights Med icare/non-Medicare low differences.