Medicare Part B spending.

In its continuing effort to identify and examine the trends in Medicare spending for surgical services, the College obtained copies of the Medicare procedure code files for the years 1986 through 1989. The results from analysis of these data files were presented in a report entitled Trends in Medicare Part B Spending 1986-1989, issued by the College in September 1991. This article describes the federal activity that prompted the College to commission the report, and presents some of the significant results of the analysis.