NEVVI Medicare utilization intelligence

Citable statistics from Medicare's own data.

Drawn from Medicare's own published files and organized by what they show. Volume figures are scaled to all of Medicare; rates stay on the fee-for-service record, and an approved amount is what the fee schedule states rather than money anyone received — every figure is yours to cite.

The Crossing

The new thing passed the old

Where a newer way of doing something passed the older one, and what the pair looked like on the way.

The wearable ECG patch didn't replace the Holter monitor — the U.S. ambulatory-ECG market ended up about 1.4 times its 2015 size
The Crossing2015–2024
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement passed open-heart surgery in Medicare in 2017 — an estimated 98,000 versus 13,000 procedures in 2024
The Crossing2015–2024
Ureteroscopy overtook shock-wave lithotripsy in Medicare in 2017
The Crossing2015–2024
Transcatheter mitral repair passed surgical mitral repair in Medicare in 2016
The Crossing2015–2024
Medicare now pays for more stool-DNA screening tests than screening colonoscopies — an estimated 1,451,000 to 1,220,000 in 2024
The Crossing2016–2024

The Map

The same procedure, state by state

The same procedure, at very different rates, state by state — always per 1,000 fee-for-service beneficiaries, never a raw count.

In 2024, Connecticut billed Medicare about 582 ambulance transports for every 1,000 fee-for-service beneficiaries — Wyoming, about 90
The Map2024
In 2024, South Dakota removed cataracts on about three times the share of fee-for-service Medicare patients as Vermont — counting patients, not billed lines
The Map2024
Florida destroys premalignant (sun-damage) skin lesions on about five times the share of fee-for-service Medicare patients as Alaska
The Map2024
In 2024, South Dakota replaced knees on about six times the share of fee-for-service Medicare patients as Hawaii
The Map2024

The Human Scale

Medicare at human speed

One year of Medicare brought down to a single day, or a single minute.

Medicare pays for a cataract surgery in the U.S. about every 8 seconds
The Human Scale2024
Medicare pays for a knee replacement in the U.S. about every 31 seconds
The Human Scale2024
Medicare pays for a hip replacement in the U.S. about every 57 seconds
The Human Scale2024
Medicare pays for a diagnostic heart catheterization about every 35 seconds
The Human Scale2024

The Rulebook

Set before anyone bills a thing

Medicare's own arithmetic — the written rules that decide what a procedure is worth, always the amount approved and never the amount anyone was paid.

For the same yearly wellness visit, Medicare approves $125.76 in Arkansas and $173.21 in San Benito County, CA
The Rulebook2026
Looking up a specific code? The code browser carries every Medicare procedure and test — with the physician groups that bill it, their volumes and charges. Useful for a specific lookup; not where the story is.
Open the code browser →

How we count

  • Scaled for Medicare Advantage. Volume headlines are estimated total-Medicare numbers built from the fee-for-service record; the calculation assumes MA per-capita utilization ≈ FFS — MA plans may manage utilization differently. Per-capita rates (the maps) stay on the FFS record and make no such assumption. The Rulebook is a fee-schedule read: CMS's own approved amounts, set before anyone bills anything, never a claims-scaled estimate.
  • Events, not claim lines. Surgeries are counted as beneficiary episodes, visits as initial encounters, studies as complete studies — billed component lines are never passed off as real-world events.
  • Suppression respected. Provider×code cells under 11 beneficiaries are withheld by CMS and never imputed.
How the numbers are built →

Built to be cited

Every statistic carries a formatted citation, a downloadable chart, and a stable URL — yours to use with attribution to Nevvi.