U.S. health-care system wastes add up
A new report says the U.S. health-care system wastes around $700 billion a year. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.
A stethoscope wrapped around a roll of $20 bills represents the costs of health care. (iStockPhoto)
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Stacey Vanek-Smith: A report from Thomson Reuters says the U.S. health-care system wastes around $700 billion a year. Ashley Milne Tyte has more.
Ashley Milne-Tyte: According to the report, much of the waste comes from what it calls unnecessary care: the over-prescription of antibiotics and over-use of tests to insure against malpractice claims. Health-care fraud accounts for another big cost -- that comes in the form of fake Medicare claims and kickbacks for referrals for unnecessary services among other things.
A hefty amount is wasted on medical mistakes. And the report says billions are spent on preventable conditions -- illnesses that could have been treated much more cheaply if the patient had gone to a doctor when their symptoms first started.
Administrative inefficiency and lack of coordination also eat up funds. When health-care providers don't talk to each other or share medical records, tests tend to get duplicated. Patients get treatment they don't need or that isn't right for them. That costs around $25-50 billion a year. All this adds up to a lot of paperwork: the report says the average U.S. hospital spends a quarter of its budget on billing and administration.
I'm Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.
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From San Antonio, TX, 10/26/2009
Yet there's nothing in the bill in congress to address this-- portable medical records would address this. All the government needs to do is give everyone an identification card that is capable of holding secure keys that allow patients who can access other services. Then general doctors can support their income by transitioning patients to portable medical records-- they make the specialists spend. But you know who doesn't lose when patients lose on redundant tests? Doctors and sometimes insurance companies. And flip it around, if doctors lose money when things work better what will the headlines be when that health care bubble bursts?
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