Politico Pulse: How to Save Billions

Politico
December 15, 2011

We’ve all heard about different ways to cut down on wasted medical spending, like not going to the ERs so much and making sure hospital patients don’t have to go back to the hospital. Now, NEHI — formerly known as the New England Health Institute — is out with a report that ties a lot of those ideas together and puts specific estimates on how much they’ll save. Like: Cut down on overuse of emergency departments, save $38 billion; don’t overuse antibiotics, save $63 billion; get patients to take their meds the way they’re prescribed, save $290 billion. The report, funded by the WellPoint Foundation, also looks at how much the health care system could save by preventing those hospital readmissions, keeping people out of hospitals through better outpatient care, getting vaccines to the people who need them and preventing medication errors. The report: http://bit.ly/rGBhx3.

Link to Full Article: http://www.politico.com/politicopulse/1211/politicopulse644.html