Report: U.S. Health Care System Squanders Up to $800 Billion Per Year

The ailing U.S. health care system could use some serious triage, according to a new report released Monday by Thomson Reuters that rooted out the many ways in which hundreds of billions of dollars are being wasted annually. Meanwhile, Americans aren’t getting any healthier.  —KA

Reuters via Google News:

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 healthcare waste or $200 to $300 billion a year.

* Fraud makes up 22 percent of healthcare 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 healthcare 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.

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