Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/1162476
33 t m c » p u l s e | s e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 9 To put these numbers into perspective, the cost to cover the uninsured is between $150 and $200 billion per year; if we could save just 15-20 percent of the waste, we could cover the uninsured. Will we ever be able to reduce the cost of medical care? Sure we can. But it won't be easy. To reduce waste, Berwick said, we must "keep processes, products, and services that actually help customers and systematically remove the elements of work that do not." Seems simple enough, right? "The challenge in removing waste from U.S. health care," he goes on, "will be to construct sound and respectful pathways of transition from business models addicted to doing more and more to ones that do only what really helps." These cost-saving measures also improve value—that is, they do not allow quality to suffer. The cost of health care must be reduced significantly. We often hear talk of the need to "bend the cost curve"—meaning that it's acceptable to have prices increase, but the rate of increase just needs to slow down. This is not good enough. If we attack some of that waste successfully, we will decrease the cost of care, not just bend it. Why does this matter so much? Today, more than 10 percent of adults in this country who aren't eligible for Medicare still don't have health insurance. To bring that number down, we have to make health insurance more affordable. Decreasing the cost of health care is the best way to decrease the cost of health insurance, and ultimately, decrease the number of uninsured people in this country. Source: "Eliminating Waste in US Health Care," The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), April 11, 2012 (online first) ANNUAL WASTE IN THE U.S. HEALTH CARE SYSTEM ($ Billions) Administrative waste / $ 248 inefficient billing procedures Overtreatment / ordering unnecessary $ 192 tests and procedures Fraud and abuse / overbilling $ 177 Pricing failures (U.S. prices higher than $ 131 the rest of the world) Failures of care delivery (safety issues) $ 128 Failures of care coordination $ 35 (hospital readmissions) Total waste $ 911