ABC News says that the US healthcare system wasted billions in healthcare costs.

ABC News says that the US healthcare system wasted billions in healthcare costs.

There is no doubt in anyones mind that the US healthcare system wastes a ton of money on fraud, paperwork, denial of claims and treatments that have little healthcare benefit as well as things that just do not work. This combined with duplicated tests, according to ABC News cost us $750 billion dollars in 2009 (and I am sure that number is quite conservative). Read about it here…

US Health Care System ‘Wasted’ $750 Billion in 2009

Reported by Julielynn Wong, M.D., ABC News Medical Unit:

The U.S. health care system wasted $750 billion on unnecessary and overpriced medical tests and treatments, administrative fees, medical fraud and missed prevention opportunities in 2009, a new report found.

The report, released today by the Institute of Medicine, suggested the money squandered on services that failed to improve Americans’ health could have provided health insurance for more than 150 million workers or covered the salaries of all of the nation’s first responders for more than 12 years.

“I was surprised at how much waste there seems to be,” said report author Dr. Mark Smith, a former expert adviser to President Clinton’s Task Force on National Health Care Reform and president of the Oakland-based California HealthCare Foundation. “We’re spending money in ways that don’t seem to improve people’s health.”

The wasted money could provide health insurance coverage for more than 150 million workers, according to the report. And 75,000 deaths might have been prevented if states delivered higher-quality care.

read more