The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission has released its first annual cost trends report examining three significant cost drivers: hospital operating expenses, wasteful spending and high-cost patients.
During the past decade,
Here are three key observations from the report on what's behind high healthcare costs in
1. In 2012, an estimated 21 to 39 percent ($14.7 billion to $26.9 billion) of healthcare spending in the state could be considered wasteful, meaning the expenditures could be eliminated without harming consumers or reducing quality of care. The report identifies $700 million in preventable acute-care hospital readmissions, $550 million in unnecessary emergency department visits and $10 million to $18 million in healthcare-associated infections, among other unnecessary spending.
2. Just 5 percent of patients account for almost half of all spending for the Medicare and commercial payment populations in
3. The report identifies improving hospital efficiency as an opportunity to cut costs without reducing quality. Even after adjusting for regional wage variations and the complexity of patient needs, hospitals with higher operating expenses spent 23 percent more than those with lower operating costs to provide the same services.
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