Shoff C, et al. - Using 2012 data from 100% of U.S. Medicare Fee-for-Service beneficiaries, researchers sought for community-level factors linked with emergency department (ED) admission rates and evaluated their variation across geography. Findings suggest variation in the ED admission rates from 3.9% to 82.2% in 3031 U.S. counties. In counties in Kansas, Oregon, and Vermont, they observed lowest ED admission rates while in counties throughout Washington, Wyoming, Texas, and Colorado, the highest ED admission rates were noted. Community-level factors that negatively impacted admission rates particularly include hospital market concentration, the rate of hospital beds with urgent care, and the rate of hospital beds. A positive impact on the admission rate was noted in correlation to the rate of MDs and factors for disadvantage, affluence, and foreign born/Hispanic. These findings emphasize the necessity for tailoring policy and interventions to reduce ED admissions to specific community contexts.