Summaries of Must-Read Clinical Literature, Guidelines, and FDA Actions
Wasteful health care spending could reach $935 billion
Key clinical point: Waste accounts for about 25% of health care spending.
Major finding: Waste estimates reach as high as $935 billion.
Study details: Researchers aggregated 71 estimates from 54 unique peer-reviewed publications, government-based reports, and reports from the gray literature across six waste categories.
Disclosures: Two of the authors reported receiving support from Humana. No other conflicts were disclosed.
Citation:
Shrank W et al. JAMA. 2019 Oct. doi: 10.1001/jama.2019.13978.
The biggest challenge in removing waste from the health care system is one of politics. People and organizations make huge profits from the current system and have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo and aren’t afraid to lobby both sides of the aisle to keep things as close to how they are.
Physicians hold power in this by championing more shared-risk payment structures that encourage everyone to be more conscious of waste. They also need to ensure their voices are heard politically to oppose greed and deception in pricing policies whenever they arise.
Donald M. Berwick, MD, president emeritus and senior fellow, the Institute for Health Care Improvement, Boston, and former CMS administrator, made his comments in an editorial published online in JAMA (2019 Oct 7. doi: 10.1001/jama.2019.14610 ).