Editorial: Paperwork a culprit in health-care costs

Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2003 | 9:52 a.m.

Aprimary-care doctor in Massachusetts, who is also an associate professor at the Harvard Medical School, revealed a startling fact last week. Along with two medical researchers, he released a report showing that paperwork and other administrative costs accounted for 30 percent ($294 billion) of all health-care spending in the United States in 1999.

The doctor, David Himmelstein, advocates a national health-care system patterned after the one in Canada, where administrative costs amount to only 17 percent. While we're wary of a national health-care system, Himmelstein's findings, reported by the New England Journal of Medicine, do cry out for a response. Instead of every health maintenance organization, insurance company, employee health benefit program and workers compensation agency having its own widely varying forms, paperwork should be more standardized, Himmelstein concluded.

If Himmelstein is right, and we believe he is, this could save billions every year while providing quicker, more efficient treatment for patients.