Significant investment in health IT without matching financial returns has been a major contributor to rising healthcare costs in the U.S., according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In 2011 the healthcare industry saw expenditures of $2.7 trillion, and at 3 percent annual growth, it continues to grow faster than any other industry or the country's gross domestic product as a whole. Almost all (91 percent) of these cost increases have been due to prices of hospital services, drugs and devices, as well as administrative costs, not an increased demand for healthcare services from an aging population as commonly thought.
These price increases in part reflect high IT expenditures that have not begun to show returns. Hospital and health system consolidation and consumers increasingly turning to non-traditional channels for care have also contributed to the increased costs.
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