project_proposal.txt

American Medicare Healthcare Analysis
Who is ripping us off


T-Th: Team 2
===========================
   1. Michael Stewart
   2. Ashok B. Raife
   3. Jeff Rosal
   4. Brian Connell

Description:
Analyzing medicare data over time

Key Questions:
1) How does Medicare spending vary by State
2) How has Medicare spending changed over time (2011-2015)
3) What are significant factors that have influenced these changes? 
(Initial exploration will consider; population growth, state spending, diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) costs)


Data sources:
FY2011: https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/Downloads/Inpatient_Data_2011_CSV.zip
FY2012: https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/Downloads/Inpatient_Data_2012_CSV.zip
FY2013: https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/Downloads/Inpatient_Data_2013_CSV.zip
FY2014: https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/Downloads/Inpatient_Data_2014_CSV.zip
FY2015: https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/Downloads/Inpatient_Data_2015_CSV.zip
Tasks:
1) Collect data
2) Clean and manipulate datesets
3) Exploration of contributing factors and whether there are correlations or Trends
4) Understand Medicare DRGs
5) Consider additional api's to help identify trends or improve data visualation