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It is the rare American patient or physician who doesn't know from personal experience how wasteful our healthcare system is. Still, the specific components of our medical waste problem haven't been well characterized.
Researchers identified six studies, published from 2008 to 2019, in which components of our national medical waste were analyzed, and estimated the costs associated with each. Each study identified specific problems that could be reassorted into six general categories. In order of cost, they were: (1) excessive prices (at a median estimated cost of US$169 billion annually), (2) fraud and abuse ($185 billion), (3) clinical inefficiency ($202 billion), (4) administrative waste ($281 billion), (5) missed prevention opportunities …