Patients' out-of-pocket spending on Medicare services 2016–17

Patients in metropolitan PHN areas were less likely to have out-of-pocket costs than patients in regional PHN areas

The proportion of patients with out-of-pocket costs for imaging tests was 5 times higher in some PHNs than others

The median out-of-pocket cost per specialist visit ranged from $36 to $97 across local areas (for patients with costs)

Half of all patients—10.9 million people—had out-of-pocket costs for non-hospital Medicare services