The infograph above indicates that many doctors office visits could be avoided. The first thing people think when they are sick should be to treat themselves with OTC drugs, then treatment from a doctors office.
If those 10% of visits were avoided and managed at home, over $5 billion according to calculations from the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) would be conserved in health spending.
Imagine the savings here if a fraction of these costs were cut. These are the figure we should be focused on at the legislative level and not the healthcare management. Leave the private insurance companies to their own.
Fraud and abuse alone account for over 100 billion in funds.
An entrenched system is hard to change. Hospitals currently have little incentive to keep patients healthy. On the contrary, fitter patients would mean lower volumes and smaller margins, says Michael Nugent of Navigant Consulting, an expert on ACOs. Nevertheless, the current system is clearly unsustainable.
