In addition to the costs of those 195,000 deaths per year, there's also the additional medical care required for all those people they screw up with medical errors that no one has even begun to estimate.
But enough on medical incompetence. Took me a bit to figure out the correct search string to dig this one out again....
Study Finds Inefficiency in Health Care
By MILT FREUDENHEIM
Warning that a surge in costs threatens to swamp the employer-subsidized health system within a decade, a new study by a group representing large employers says that $390 billion a year is being wasted on outmoded and inefficient medical procedures.
The costs pile up from several sources, according to the study, which is being published today. Among them is the overuse of surgical procedures, tests and medicines; the failure to routinely provide flu and pneumonia vaccines or appropriate tests and follow-up medicines for heart and diabetes patients; and inadequate screening for breast cancer, depression and certain venereal diseases.
"Poor quality in health care costs the typical employer an estimated $1,700 to $2,000 for each covered employee each year," said Jim Mortimer, president of the Midwest Business Group on Health, sponsor of the study. That was about a third of the $4,900 spent for each employee on health care last year.
The Juran Institute, an industrial management consulting firm, estimated the costs, drawing on information from hospitals, health policy experts and published research. The study urges companies and health plans to press for quality improvements by hospitals and doctors.
"You don't see the cost of poor quality until you go look for it," said Joseph A. DeFeo, chief executive of Juran. "If a surgical procedure takes two hours more at one hospital than another, you don't see it. We hope this opens people's eyes."....
nytimes.com
Why on earth do we want to start with liability reform when the medical industry reeks with incompetence and gross inefficiencies?
jttmab |
