Here are four points on healthcare spending waste and the possibility of cost savings, according to a Vitals report.
1. Patients often waste money by selecting the wrong healthcare facility for care. Each year $18 billion are wasted on avoidable emergency department visits.
2. Nearly half of patients, 40 percent, go to the emergency department for non-emergency medical visits.
3. Though patients are beginning to price compare in healthcare, there remains a knowledge gap. Patients do not always know how much the cost of a procedure varies from one facility to the next. For example, the national median for an appendectomy is $33,000. The procedure costs $1,500 on the low end and $180,000 on the high end.
4. When actively shopping around for healthcare, the average consumer can save a significant amount. The average consumer saved the following per procedure after doing thorough research on procedure costs:
• Bariatric surgery: $12,436
• Hip replacement: $7,649
• Gall bladder surgery: $3,187
• Colonoscopy: $1,351
• MRI: $780
More articles on finance issues:
The community hospital survival guide: Strategies to keep the doors open
Texas health system files for bankruptcy protection
For-profit stock report: Week of June 8-12
