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IOM Urges 10 Major Healthcare Fixes
The U.S. healthcare system operates like an ATM machine that takes days to release cash. It functions like a home construction project whose carpenters and plumbers use different blueprints. And it does business like a store that prices items depending on who is making the purchase.
It fails to contain wasteful spending, estimated at about $765 billion in 2009 alone, largely from unnecessary and inefficiently delivered services, excess administrative costs and overpricing, and in fraud and missed prevention opportunities.
Those are some of the findings from a 382-page report the Institute of Medicine released Thursday calling for a major overhaul to remove inefficiencies and other barriers to quality care.
The report, "Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America," was prepared by a 17-person committee chaired by Mark Smith, President and CEO of the California HealthCare Foundation.
- $6.4B Henry Ford, Beaumont Merger Failed on Cultural Hurdles
- How Chargemaster Data May Affect Hospital Revenue
- House Lawmakers Grill CMS Over Health Exchange Navigators
- Fortunately, Angelina Jolie Isn't On Medicare
- ED Physicians Key to Half of Hospital Admissions
- Don't Let Nurses Sink Your Bottom Line
- Primary Care Docs Average More Hospital Revenue Than Specialists
- Insurer's App Aims to Lower Healthcare Costs, Securely
- Uncompensated Care Faces a Double Hit in Some States
- 69% of Employers Plan to Offer Healthcare Coverage After 2014
Comments are moderated. Please be patient.
Joleen Chambers (9/15/2012 at 9:52 AM)
The #1 expenditure of Medicare is joint replacement. July 29, 2011 the IOM reported that the FDA 510(k) method of approving these implanted medical devices should be scrapped because it failed the mission of assuring devices are safe and effective. Thousands of Americans are living in medical and legal purgatory. Profit is privatized but the patient harm byproduct is a drag on our country's prosperity and a national shame. Congess and our judicial system must arm consumers with public health information and consumer protections/civil rights to stand up to a powerful and aggressive industry.
Tyco Brahe (9/12/2012 at 11:24 AM)
Many of these very recommendations are contained within Healthcare Reform. It's terrible that politics gets in the way of improving our heathcare system. All we hear is "Obamacare is bad!" but there's no real discussion of all the valuable points within it.