1.   A report released by the Department of Health and Human Services shows wide geographic disparities in waiting times for livers, kidneys and other organs needed to save lives.

2.   Geographic disparities in growth are not necessarily harmful.

3.   Patients typically see a doctor more often in those places, said Dr. John E. Wennberg, who has studied geographic disparities.

4.   The geographic disparities are also startling.

5.   There are glaring geographic disparities in the application of the federal death penalty law.

6.   This same discretion explains the geographic disparities in the system, he said.

7.   HHS ordered the network to reduce the geographic disparities, and the network agreed after a protracted fight, signing a new contract that requires just that.

8.   In the compromise, Frist agreed to add a provision making it clear that the distribution system should work to reduce geographic disparities in the system.