Administrative spending makes up 15% to 30% of all U.S. medical spending—multiple times as much as other comparable countries—and “at least half” of that spending “does not contribute to health outcomes in any discernable way,” according to estimates cited in a new Health Affairs research brief, Fierce Healthcare reports.
So-called wasteful administrative spending is estimated to comprise 7.5% to 15% of the nation’s total healthcare spending, translating to anywhere from $285 billion to $570 billion in 2019, the journal’s researchers wrote. Those totals could reach even higher in recent years due pandemic-driven spending increases. Read more.
