Forgive me if I&#x27;m mistaken, but isn&#x27;t a &quot;procedure&quot; something that is well documented set of steps to be taken to remedy a person&#x27;s ills or assess what is actually wrong with the patient (ie. mri, xray, etc) ?<p>Sure, like with anything, there may be some unknowns that cause some variations in the implementation of the procedure, but it&#x27;s likely a valid (in most cases) way to track performance and control costs.  If some hospital is regularly charging 2 standard deviations more than other hospitals for same procedures, that seems it would be a red flag.<p>Or if a doctor is regularly taking 2 standard deviations longer to perform same procedures as the rest of his&#x2F;her peers, that&#x27;s a red flag.