Ann Arbor, MI October 26, 2009 - The U.S. healthcare system wastes between $600 billion and $850 billion annually, according to a white paper published today by Thomson Reuters.

The report identifies the most significant drivers of wasteful spending - including administrative inefficiency, unnecessary treatment, medical errors, and fraud - and quantifies their cost. It is based on a review of published research and analyses of proprietary healthcare data.

"The bad news is that an estimated $700 billion is wasted annually. That's one-third of the nation's healthcare bill," said Robert Kelley, vice president of healthcare analytics at Thomson Reuters and author of the white paper. "The good news is that by attacking waste, healthcare costs can be reduced without adversely affecting the quality of care or access to care.

"That's the point of this report - to identify areas in the healthcare system that can generate game-changing savings," Kelley said.

Here are some of the study's key findings:

Unnecessary Care (40% of healthcare waste): Unwarranted treatment, such as the over-use of antibiotics and the use of diagnostic lab tests to protect against malpractice exposure, accounts for $250 billion to $325 billion in annual healthcare spending.
Fraud (19% of healthcare waste): Healthcare fraud costs $125 billion to $175 billion each year, manifesting itself in everything from fraudulent Medicare claims to kickbacks for referrals for unnecessary services.
Administrative Inefficiency (17% of healthcare waste): The large volume of redundant paperwork in the U.S healthcare system accounts for $100 billion to $150 billion in spending annually.
Healthcare Provider Errors (12% of healthcare waste): Medical mistakes account for $75 billion to $100 billion in unnecessary spending each year.
Preventable Conditions (6% of healthcare waste): Approximately $25 billion to $50 billion is spent annually on hospitalizations to address conditions such as uncontrolled diabetes, which are much less costly to treat when individuals receive timely access to outpatient care.
Lack of Care Coordination (6% of healthcare waste): Inefficient communication between providers, including lack of access to medical records when specialists intervene, leads to duplication of tests and inappropriate treatments that cost $25 billion to $50 billion annually.

Here's the video that was supposed to be embedded above.

And when you let me take over I can double it, NO problem!

-Obammyman

#3 | Posted by The_Chapel at 2009-10-28 12:08 PM | Reply | Flag: Cognitively Challenged

The Death Panel Is In

This is what you get when neither patient nor doctor have an interest in costs because they are paid for by a third party, whether that party is public or private. Corky is unwittingly making a case against insurance paid for by employer OR government.

Well, in our current predatory capitalist system, ones waste is always another's profit.
This will continue until we have exhausted everything, at which time the "personally reasonable conservatives" will promptly Blame Someone else for it all!

Stay the Course!

Ray makes a case for forced lobotomy every time he posts.

One of the major systemic reforms of health care is payment based on results, not fees, but then, Ray wouldn't know anything about that.

Nor about gov being a third party that doesn't whack 30 percent off the top before they start figuring costs.

Ray unwittingly makes a case for cutting out the middle man, the insurance industry, and making health care between doctors and patients.

How do most Americans get their health care? Throught the Government.

Funny thing is that all the proponents of HSA's say that the cost will go down. Funny that has not happened yet.

Truth be told is that "costs" and profits will remain exactly the same, you can just choose to not seek treatment.

Corky

I can't think of one thing that government does cheaply without waste, albeit massive waste. There is no incentive to control costs beause they can can always push debt into the future and force taxpayers to pay whatever they demand.

Ray unwittingly makes a case for cutting out the middle man, the insurance industry, and making health care between doctors and patients.

That shows a complete absence of knowledge of why profit seeking companies have an interest in cutting operating costs and waste. The reason being is that they cannot force consumers to buy what they sell.

There is an abundance of examples, like food and computers where business operates on low margins and still manage to keep prices low. Competition forces them to. Conversely, government has no competition.

It is the interference of government in the health care industry that has been driving up costs and waste. But being totally illiterate in economic and finance, you continue to blame the effects of government intervention as if government had nothing to do with it.

I think Washington is going to pass some kind of legislation. It will be another socialist nail in the coffin of what was once a great country.

-I can't think of one thing that government does cheaply without waste, albeit massive waste.

Look up how many parcels the USPO delivers each day compared to what Fedex and UPS do in a year.

Ask Medicare patients how they would like to give up their terrible gubmint health care.

Go to your public library and tell them what a waste of space they are.

Start a campaign to get rid of the National Park system...... stop whining about "ebil gubmint" and do something!

-The reason being is that they cannot force consumers to buy what they sell.

Horseshit, plain and simple. They are legal monopolies with many states having on 1 or 2 providers.... nada real competition.

-It will be another socialist nail in the coffin of what was once a great country.

Your obsessive depressive paranoia has reached very unhealthy limits..... despite the frontal lobotomy.

Well, we all know how good the United States government is at controlling waste. They'll get right in there and clean things up in no time!

Look up how many parcels the USPO delivers each day compared to what Fedex and UPS do in a year.

The USPS couldn't operate without government subsidies.

Ask Medicare patients how they would like to give up their terrible gubmint health care.

Medicare appears cheap, but government has an unfunded liability somewhere over $70 Trillion.

Go to your public library and tell them what a waste of space they are.

That wasn't my argument. I argued on the grounds of waste and inefficiency. We don't know what a private library would be like, because publc libraries are free to users at the expense of taxpayers.

Horseshit, plain and simple. They are legal monopolies with many states having on 1 or 2 providers.... nada real competition.

Exactly. LEGAL monopolies. That means sponsored by government.

Your obsessive depressive paranoia has reached very unhealthy limits..... despite the frontal lobotomy.

That's typical for you to have a childish temper tantrum every time I demolish your vacuous arguments.

We don't know what a private library would be like, because publc libraries are free to users at the expense of taxpayers.
POSTED BY RAY AT 2009-10-28 01:34 PM

Highly doubtful they would be free. We should never privatize libraries. I don't mind my taxes going towards people having the ability to gain information from a free resource neither should anybody else.

Jackass

Libraries are really not free; they are paid for by taxpayers. This forces the majority to pay for a facility they do not use. I see no evidence that libraries have made Americans any smarter or more educated. If anything, the quality of education has declined considerably. I can see it on this site.

I don't know how libraries are doing these days, but I would suspect that the internet has cut into business. Additionally, interest in reading has gone down enormously.

Back on topic. Government operations are inherently inefficient because they lack the discipline forced on business in the marketplace. Show me where discipline is missing and I'll show you some form of government involvement.

Ray even if something could be run more efficiently by a pvt company it doesn't mean it should be. The purpose of a company is to make money. Sometimes this isn't the best way to operate. Look at Hospitals. For Profit Hospitals operate very differently compared to non profit state hospitals. Patient care should be a top priority in healthcare but it seems like they care more about shareholders than patients in for profit hospitals.
Another example is schools. What do you think this country would be like if we got rid of taxpayer funded schools and Families had to pay tuition for all students? Would you want to live in a country where 30% of the people didn't get any formal education?

I assume Ray is aware of Hawaii's health care system?

Ray even if something could be run more efficiently by a pvt company it doesn't mean it should be. The purpose of a company is to make money. Sometimes this isn't the best way to operate.

Healthcare is not one of times. Every attempt to displace what the market could do better results in waste and inefficieny. The price and profit mechanism is more critical to a functioning market than you will give credit to.

Look at Hospitals. For Profit Hospitals operate very differently compared to non profit state hospitals. Patient care should be a top priority in healthcare but it seems like they care more about shareholders than patients in for profit hospitals.

No profit seeking company can stay in business if it abuses its customers. I believe that something like 90% of all hospitals are non-profit and operate within zones so they don't compete. As a result, hospital costs have gone through the roof.

Another example is schools. What do you think this country would be like if we got rid of taxpayer funded schools and Families had to pay tuition for all students? Would you want to live in a country where 30% of the people didn't get any formal education?

Education was private until about a hundred years ago. When taxpayer funded schools were introduced, they pushed private schools out of business. The cost to educate one student for a year ranges from $10,000 to $15,000 a year. In my state, NJ, property taxes are crippling the state.

Jackass - You have the same problem Christians have. You idealize a world that doesn't existe in reality. Socialism, as a system of wealth confiscation, is a prescription for poverty.

I assume Ray is aware of Hawaii's health care system?
#18 | Posted by LetUsPrey

That's a good example of cost shifting. To keep health care prices low, taxes drive prices up everwhere else.

I don't know how you socialists can imagine that your desires don't come without a price.

Of course Ray. Here's one of the "costs"....

"Hawaii residents live longer than people in the rest of the country, recent surveys have shown, and the state's health care system may be one reason. In one example, Hawaii has the nation's highest incidence of breast cancer but the lowest death rate from the disease."

Just admit what you and other so-called conservatives really want - people to die - faster and more often.

#22 | Posted by LetUsPrey

That's really funny. I'm 68 and in excellent health. I believe Hawaii has one of the highest costs of living in the country.

Why don't you admit that socialized medicine will make this nation poorer.

PS - I have no use for conservatives.

"Hawaii residents live longer than people in the rest of the country, recent surveys have shown, and the state's health care system may be one reason. In one example, Hawaii has the nation's highest incidence of breast cancer but the lowest death rate from the disease."

You can't rule out dietary habits. I suspect that Hawaii with its year round warm climate grows much of their own food. I found the quality of food was outstanding.

- LEGAL monopolies. That means sponsored by government

One should know prior to arguing with Rastradamus that he has his own dictionary of definitions..... whatever it takes to spin the dialogue.

The point being that all the talk about not being able to squeeze as much as $450 billion of waste out of health care is a LOW figure, not a high one.

LEGAL monopolies. That means sponsored by government
One should know prior to arguing with Rastradamus that he has his own dictionary of definitions..... whatever it takes to spin the dialogue.
#25 | Posted by Corky

Monopolies are against the law. What happened to the antitrust government lawyers? If they are a monopoly, why haven't they been broken up? Or, what is more likely, Corky is throwing around words without knowing what he's talking about.

The last I heard, insurance companies have a profit margin somewhere in the area of 1-2%. What is Corky complaining about?

No wonder Ray doesn't care about healthcare reform. He gets Medicare already and a SS check. Ray is a socialist!!

Once the same crew responsible for $800 hammers and Amtrak get done, we should be able to kick that number up to a trillion four in no time flat.

The waste that will be caused by half measures in health reform will surely cause the waste and cost to INCREASE. The argument that a public option will LOWER cost is false.

Government health care policies:
Federal Employees Health Benefits Program
Indian Health Service
Medicaid
Medicare
Military Health System / TRICARE
State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
Veterans Health Administration

Government is already the biggest player in healthcare. Another bureaucracy will only add to that $700 billion number.

No wonder Ray doesn't care about healthcare reform. He gets Medicare already and a SS check. Ray is a socialist!!
#28 | Posted by jackass

After all I wrote on this thread about how government fucks up everything it touches, the best Jackass can do is call me a socialist.

PS- I turned down the optional Medicare plans.

Once the same crew responsible for $800 hammers and Amtrak get done, we should be able to kick that number up to a trillion four in no time flat.
#29 | Posted by rightisright

Until they default.

No wonder Ray doesn't care about healthcare reform. He gets Medicare already and a SS check.
#28 | Posted by jackass

It'll only recover a tiny fraction of what the bastards stole from me.

It'll only recover a tiny fraction of what the bastards stole from me.

#34 | Posted by Ray

You cheapskate ingrate. Nobody stole a fucking thing from you, leech. This social group you belong to, i.e., humanity, should exile you to the middle of the Sahara desert. Let's see how far you manage on your gold.

"It'll only recover a tiny fraction of what the bastards stole from me."

What, in Medicare taxes?

What a joke. If you're on Medicare today, there's no way in the world you've paid as much in as you'll take out.

If you're on Medicare today, there's no way in the world you've paid as much in as you'll take out.

If you are already 65, be honest when you add it up, you can easily run through an amount of money equalivent to your contributions with very little medical care.

Exactly, Eb.

Looking at medical inflation alone proves it. The fact we saw 131% medical inflation in the last decade, vs. ZERO percent Medicare tax inflation during the same period should put any doubt to rest.

What, in Medicare taxes?
What a joke. If you're on Medicare today, there's no way in the world you've paid as much in as you'll take out.
#36 | Posted by Danforth

First of all, I have no choice on Part A.
Second, I'll taking about government's systemic stealing, otherwise known as taxes.

You cheapskate ingrate. Nobody stole a fucking thing from you, leech. This social group you belong to, i.e., humanity, should exile you to the middle of the Sahara desert. Let's see how far you manage on your gold.
#35 | Posted by nullifidian

It's the taxes stupid. I'm tired of supporting parasites and socialist crooks like you.

I'm trying the download the actual study right now, but I'm just a little suspicious when a report of a study comes out saying that 1/3 of all medical expenses are tied to waste. No doubt that there is waste in the system; I just can't believe that it accounts for 33% of health care costs!