Follow the Money

Cal Barna · MIS 752 Lab 3 · 5,000 synthetic patients · Lifetime spending

Median spending
$97,135
Mean spending
$188,952
Top 10% share
43.2%
Top-decile cutoff
$509,540

This week's exemplar

Lifetime spending: $1,048,378 · Spending percentile: 98.4

The marker shows her percentile position on the cumulative curve.

Income and social context

Mean spending rises from Q1 through Q3, then falls in Q4. This pattern is descriptive and does not establish causation.

View income and ZIP tables

Income quartiles: Q1 is lowest income

count mean median
income_q
Q1 1250 51820.0 14798.0
Q2 1250 266025.0 148986.0
Q3 1250 291041.0 148041.0
Q4 1250 146922.0 118706.0

ZIP-3 regions ranked by mean spending

count mean median
zip3
025 81 325930.0 217664.0
026 120 236038.0 139668.0
023 215 230881.0 111196.0
012 74 222905.0 126889.0
019 354 216763.0 105537.0
017 153 208083.0 127742.0
014 120 206682.0 102734.0
027 175 195731.0 82041.0
020 192 194954.0 127033.0
013 29 184380.0 146357.0

Interpretation

Lifetime spending reflects differences in age and observation time. Small ZIP groups can have unstable averages. ZIP 000 is excluded. Percentile cutoff ties can make the top-decile group exceed 10% of patients. Use this dashboard to investigate supportive outreach, not deny care.

Source: Synthea synthetic patient dataset.