ABC Repors: There’s an “extremely high level of waste” in federal health spending, ranging between 20 and 30 percent, the freshly departed head of the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services told the New York Times.
“Much is done that does not help patients at all,” said Dr. Donald M. Berwick, who was temporarily appointed by President Obama to head CMS. “And many physicians know it.”
Berwick listed five reasons for the waste, as reported by the NYT: “overtreatment of patients, the failure to coordinate care, the administrative complexity of the health care system, burdensome rules and fraud.”
Berwick’s comments come at a time when the U.S. Department Health and Human Services is shuffling to manage and allocate billions of dollars into implementing the Affordable Care Act amid an ideological and political debate about its future.
