Original article by Joe Elia for NEJM Journal Watch
Roughly a quarter of the $3.8 trillion spent on healthcare in the U.S. each year is wasted, according to a JAMA study.
Based on the past 7 years of research, researchers estimated the amount of waste in the system and the amount of savings possible with the implementation of published cost-saving strategies. Waste amounted to over $800 billion annually, a quarter of which might be saved through, for instance, better drug-pricing strategies or emphasizing high-value care.
The top three areas of waste were, in order, administrative complexity (for which the authors found no published studies of cost-saving strategies), overpricing by drugmakers and hospitals, and lack of care coordination.
One editorial — there are three — waggishly points out that one person’s “waste” is another’s “income.” The author, Dr. Don Berwick, sees the solution to waste as a political one, concluding that it “will require both awakening a sleepy status quo and shifting power to wrest [the system] from the grip of greed.”
Clinical Conversations interviewed Dr. Berwick to get more of his thoughts on healthcare spending. Listen in at the fifth link below.
LINK(S):
JAMA article (Free)
Editorial #1 (Bauchner) (Free)
Editorial #2 (Joynt Maddox) (Free)
Editorial #3 (Berwick) (Free)
Clinical Conversations interview with Dr. Don Berwick (running time, ~18 min.) (Free)
