FrontMatter -- Reviewers -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Boxes, Figures, and Tables -- Acronyms -- Glossary -- Summary -- 1 Introduction and Overview -- 2 Labor Markets and Payment Areas -- 3 Hospital Wage Index -- 4 Smoothing the Borders of Labor Markets and Payment Areas -- 5 Geographic Practice Cost Indexes -- 6 Transitions -- Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies -- Appendix B: Public Committee Meeting Agendas -- Appendix C: List of Contributors and Participants -- Appendix D: Statistical Reliability of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Wage Data -- Appendix E: Comparison of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and Institute of Medicine (IOM) Proposals for Alternative Hospital Wage Indexes (HWIs) -- Appendix F: Description of Three Optional Sources for Facility Wage Index Data -- Appendix G: RTI Analysis Data Sources -- Appendix H: S-3 Worksheet -- Appendix I: Physician Work Adjustment -- Index.