Harvard-USC researchers indicated three areas in which the healthcare industry could see these savings:
- Reducing the number and cost of high-cost illnesses through better coordination of care (for example, fewer people needing to be re-hospitalized after an initial hospitalization);
- Lowering unit prices of healthcare services that are more expensive in the United States than in other developed countries (for example, operating rooms and scanners that are run at less than full capacity); and
- Streamlining excessive administrative costs that improve neither quality nor patient satisfaction.
The researchers concluded by noting that successful healthcare reform would contain provisions to curb insurance premium growth, resulting in lower administrative costs for businesses.
View the Harvard-USC study on the costs of healthcare reform (pdf).
