Study: Billions in Mass. health spending wasteful
At least one-fifth of the Bay State’s health care spending could be considered wasteful, according to a report released Wednesday by the commonwealth’s Health Policy Commission.
Between $14.7 billion and $26.9 billion of Massachusetts’s 2012 health care spending could have been eliminated without sacrificing the quality of the care consumers receive, the commission said. Specific examples of waste include $700 million in preventable acute hospital readmissions and $550 million in unnecessary emergency department visits.
Overall, Massachusetts spends more per capita on health care than any other state, with 16.6 percent of the commonwealth’s economy devoted to personal health care expenses. The nationwide average nationwide is 15.1 percent.
The Bay State’s health care spending has grown much faster over the past decade than that of the rest of the country, driven primarily by faster growth in commercial prices. Spending growth, though, has slowed both in Massachusetts and elsewhere since 2009.
Five percent of patients account for nearly half of the commonwealth’s health care spending, the commission found. Nearly a third of those half been high-cost patients for several years.
(Image credit: freedigitalphotos.net)
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