Medicare's cost crisis: solutions are within our grasp

As this collection of papers shows, Medicare faces serious future challenges as the population it serves grows larger and older in the coming decades. Variation in the way health care is provided--also known as process variability--is a major contributor to the rising costs that are threatening Medicare's long-term viability. If existing information technology (IT) and industrial operations tools were applied, process variability could be reduced, efficiency increased, and cost growth reined in. Health professionals trained in geriatrics could form the nucleus of such an organized effort to preserve access to Medicare.