US healthcare system is quite unique; it is the costliest system in the world but the outcomes are poor. In other words, the value of healthcare (outcomes/cost) is low and a significant amount expense goes in waste. There have been efforts to reduce waste in the healthcare system but it is unclear how effective such efforts have been.
In one estimate, the overall annual cost of waste in the healthcare is between $760 to $935 billion or 25% of the total healthcare spending. Authors also tried to estimate the amount of waste in different domains. Of interest is that fact that administrative complexity and pricing failure are the largest ticket items but there are only meager attempts to address these.
Below are the numbers:
| Domain | Waste (in billions) |
| Failure of Care Delivery | $102.4 to $165.7 |
| Failure of Care Coordination | $27.2 to $78.2 |
| Low-value Care | $75.7 to $101.2 |
| Pricing Failure | $230.7 to $240.5 |
| Fraud and Abuse | $58.5 to $83.9 |
| Administrative Complexity | $265.6 |
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