MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Nearly ⅓ of every dollar spent on healthcare in the U.S. is wasted, amounting to about $750 billion down the drain each year, according to a new Institute of Medicine report.
The wasted costs are mostly associated with excessive paperwork, unnecessary procedures, healthcare fraud and other items that are draining the nation’s health systems, the IOM found.
"Health care in America presents a fundamental paradox," according to the report. "The past 50 years have seen an explosion in biomedical knowledge, dramatic innovation in therapies and surgical procedures, and management of conditions that previously were fatal … yet, American health care is falling short on basic dimensions of quality, outcomes, costs and equity."
The panel recommended that legislators promote more public discussion about proper care, pointing to the "Choose Wisely" campaign launched by a clutch of medical societies aiming to challenge the notion that more care is better care, the Associated Press reported.
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