Berwick: Up to 30% of Health Care Spending Is Wasteful

In an interview with the New York Times one day before officially relinquishing his post as CMS administrator, Donald Berwick said that 20% to 30% of the nation's health care spending is "waste" that provides no benefit to patients. Berwick said some of the extraneous spending is a result of tedious and outdated regulations enforced by the agency, as well as overtreatment of patients, failure to coordinate care, complex administrative restrictions on the health care system, burdensome rules and fraud. Berwick estimated that Medicare and Medicaid could save $150 billion to $250 billion annually by eliminating wasteful spending.

• "Health Official Takes Parting Shot at 'Waste'" (Pear, New York Times, 12/3).