Dr. Gawande will discuss his New Yorker article, The Cost Conundrum, on NPR's Fresh Air today.

In "The Cost Conundrum," his latest article for The New Yorker,staff writer Dr. Atul Gawande reports from McAllen, Texas, aborder-town with the dubious distinction of spending more per person onhealth care than almost any other market in America.

But higherspending doesn't necessarily correlate with better care, as Gawandediscovers when he compares health outcomes in McAllen with those of ElPaso, Texas — a city with similar population demographics, but whereMedicare spending per enrollee that is half that of McAllen.

Gawandewrites that his findings, based on Medicare's 25 metrics of care,indicate that: "On all but two of these [standards of care], McAllen'sfive largest hospitals performed worse, on average, than El Paso's.McAllen costs Medicare seven thousand dollars more per person each yearthan does the average city in America. But not, so far as one can tell,because it's delivering better health care." …