Proposed reforms could be paid for by fixing inefficiencies, report claims
WASHINGTON - The U.S. health care system is just as wasteful as President Barack Obama says it is, and proposed reforms could be paid for by fixing some of the most obvious inefficiencies, preventing mistakes and fighting fraud, according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Monday.
The U.S. health care system wastes between $505 billion and $850 billion every year, the report from Robert Kelley, vice president of health care analytics at Thomson Reuters, found.
"America's health care system is indeed hemorrhaging billions of dollars, and the opportunities to slow the fiscal bleeding are substantial," the report reads.
"The bad news is that an estimated $700 billion is wasted annually. That's one-third of the nation's health care bill," Kelley said in a statement.
"The good news is that by attacking waste we can reduce health care costs without adversely affecting the quality of care or access to care."
One example — a paper-based system that discourages sharing of medical records accounts for 6 percent of annual overspending.
"It is waste when caregivers duplicate tests because results recorded in a patient's record with one provider are not available to another or when medical staff provides inappropriate treatment because relevant history of previous treatment cannot be accessed," the report reads.
Some other findings in the report from Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters:
Unnecessary care such as the overuse of antibiotics and lab tests to protect against malpractice exposure makes up 37 percent of health care waste or $200 to $300 billion a year.
Fraud makes up 22 percent of health care waste, or up to $200 billion a year in fraudulent Medicare claims, kickbacks for referrals for unnecessary services and other scams.
Administrative inefficiency and redundant paperwork account for 18 percent of health care waste.
Medical mistakes account for $50 billion to $100 billion in unnecessary spending each year, or 11 percent of the total.
Preventable conditions such as uncontrolled diabetes cost $30 billion to $50 billion a year.
"The average U.S. hospital spends one-quarter of its budget on billing and administration, nearly twice the average in Canada," reads the report, citing dozens of other research papers.
"American physicians spend nearly eight hours per week on paperwork and employ 1.66 clerical workers per doctor, far more than in Canada," it says, quoting a 2003 New England Journal of Medicine paper by Harvard University researcher Dr. Steffie Woolhandler.
Yet primary care doctors are lacking, forcing wasteful use of emergency rooms, for instance, the report reads.
All this could help explain why Americans spend more per capita and the highest percentage of GDP on health care than any other OECD country, yet has an unhealthier population with more diabetes, obesity and heart disease and higher rates of neonatal deaths than other developed nations.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said on Sunday that Senate Democratic leaders are close to securing enough votes to pass legislation to start reform of the country's $2.5 trillion health care system.
Unnecessary care such as the overuse of antibiotics and lab tests to protect against malpractice exposure makes up 37 percent of health care waste or $200 to $300 billion a year.
That's just ridiculous man!
This article misleadingly claims that the proposed health care legislation will fix the nation's health care woes, eliminate the alleged $850 billion in waste and be deficit neutral because of these cost savings. Let us look at some of the specifics in the bills that the Senate is contemplating and the House has passed and their relations to the $850 billion in waste. The House bill will cost 1.2 trillion dollars over the next ten years and the Senate version will cost around $900 billion according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. First of all, both these figures are already more than the $850 billion in waste that can be "saved." Not only that, but if you actually READ the bills (which most legislators have failed to do) you will see that the provisions do not attempt to cut much of the waste that this article claims that it will. According to the article, "Unnecessary care such as the overuse of antibiotics and lab tests to protect against malpractice exposure makes up 37 percent of health care waste or $200 to $300 billion a year." They are talking about tort reform, yet the hypocritical Democrat majority will not even attempt to touch medical malpractice because they get massive campaign contributions from trial lawyers who make their living off trying these largely frivolous cases. That brings us down to $600 billion. Scams and fraudulent Medicare/Medicaid claims make up another $200 billion according to the article. Both these programs are effectively bankrupt and run by the inefficient federal bureaucracy. If they could, why would they not have already cut this waste to save the taxpayer billions? They obviously cannot stop this fraud and it will only rise as the lumbering government takes on another massive program in national health care. That brings us down to $400 billion in savings that can be used to fund the current bills. Even if we could reduce administrative inefficiency, medical mistakes and preventable disease by 100% (which is highly unlikely), we still need to find $500 to $800 billion to fund the Congressional plans. This is simply the reality and many of you are being blatantly lied to by the mainstream media and you take it for reasons unknown to me. The Congress "pays" for the rest of the plan by increasing taxes across the board in the worst economic climate since the great depression, slashing Medicare by hundreds of billions and by printing more money and borrowing from the likes of China and Saudi Arabia. This is not responsible and likely will not stop medical costs from continuing to rise. The government cannot run any program effectively; Medicare and Social Security will soon be bankrupt, Amtrak takes billions in losses every year, even the Post Office has doomed itself on the backs of the taxpayer. Why add another big government program to the mix?
How about instituting some common sense reforms that are fiscally prudent, reward healthy lifestyles and put the individual in charge of their own health and insurance:
We all want real health care reform, but let's not destroy the best parts of our health system and replace it with one that is likely to fail because it sounds nice, makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside and is pushed by an obviously biased media.
Harry Reid’s Health Care Bill has gotten unnecessarily complex. It has turned into insurance and tax reform instead of health care reform, so I can understand why you’re frustrated about some things. The purpose of that article actually wasn't to show how proposed reforms would fix all those inefficiencies, but I actually just wanted to highlight how our system is broken and the billions of dollars that are being hemorrhaged. Sorry that I failed to mention that. That was a critical point and it’s good you saw that because it is pretty misleading. Harry Reid’s Senate Leadership Bill claims to reduce deficits by $777 million in the next 20 years.
This bill definitely needs to be improved. It does offer some form of subsidies, as it would require most Americans to carry insurance and also provide hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies to those who cannot afford it. Medium and larger companies wouldn’t be required to offer coverage, but they would be forced to pay fees if the government ends up subsidizing their employees’ insurance. The bill would also set up exchanges, which are insurance marketplaces for those who have a hard time getting/keeping coverage. Consumers would have the choice of buying government-sold insurance there. This is an attempt to hold down prices charged by private insurances. I agree in that we definitely need medical malpractice reform and must work harder on promoting a healthier lifestyle and preventative care. I always wondered why this was pretty much absent from the Health Care Debate. However, it is very difficult to muster the political will to change something as drastic as health care. Efforts by both the Clinton Administration and the Bush Administration failed. The proper changes need to be made but if nothing happens, I just hope some positive reform is made.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_health_care_plan_of_1993
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_George_Bushs_Health_Care_Legacy_32464.html
http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20091118/ARTICLES/911189841/1212?Title=Democratic-leadership-unveils-Senate-health-bill&tc=autorefresh