Who's Tackling Rampant Overutilization? Health Plans!

Managed Care Magazine
December 1, 2009

As much as $850 billion spent on medical care each year “can be eliminated without reducing the quality of care,” says a 2008 report (“Waste and Inefficiency in the U.S. Health Care System,” subtitled “Clinical Care: A Comprehensive Analysis in Support of System-wide Improvements”) by the New England Healthcare Institute. That is enough to extend insurance coverage to more than 30 million people, according to the Congressional Budget Office...

...“The work was a major undertaking that carefully, painstakingly examined nearly 1,500 individual studies,” says Stuart Altman, PhD, professor of national health policy at Brandeis University and a member of the expert panel that conducted the study. “Our findings surprised even us.”

According to the NEHI study, the largest source of wasteful spending is variation in patterns of care that is not associated with differing clinical outcomes. It established a consensus definition of waste: health care spending that can be eliminated without reducing the quality of care....

Link to Full Article: http://www.managedcaremag.com/archives/0912/0912.utilization.html