Better care coordination, stronger patient awareness of health risks and wellness, and eliminating fraud and abuse could lead to a 50% reduction in wasteful spending in health care. Those are the findings from a report by Thomson Reuters, which indicates savings could total $3.6 billion over a decade.
“The simple reality is that in the United States we practice ‘sick care’ not ‘health care,’” said Dr. Raymond Fabius, chief medical officer, who wrote the report with Bob Kelley, vice president, Healthcare Analytics. “Each stakeholder in the system: providers, payers, vendors, and patients have a role to play in making a cultural shift to wellness and health.”
Take obesity, for example. Annual obesity related costs have been estimated to be as high as $187 billion in 2008 dollars, and evidence indicates obesity underlies the most costly illnesses: diabetes, heart disease, and many types of cancers.
Analysis indicates that such actions directed at obesity alone can save anywhere from $37 billion to $140 billion in costs depending upon how widespread the actions are adopted. The study, “A Path to Eliminating $3.6 Trillion in Wasteful
CDHCI Offers Quarterly Report on HSAs
The Consumer Driven Healthcare Institute (CDHCI) has launched a new quarterly report that aggregates blind data from 72% of health savings account (HSA) participants.
In the first quarter, total accounts administered in HSA programs on average grew 4%, according to the Q1 their individual HSAs and 56% of employees contributing to their family HSAs. To subscribe to the report, which will be released quarterly, please go to: http://www.cdhci.org/news.php?viewStory=2276.