The current waste in the United States healthcare system is estimated to be in the range of $750 billion – $1 trillion. A 2012 study by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine found the following:

The costs of the system’s current inefficiency underscore the urgent need for a systemwide transformation. The committee calculated that about 30 percent of health spending in 2009 — roughly $750 billion — was wasted on unnecessary services, excessive administrative costs, fraud, and other problems. Moreover, inefficiencies cause needless suffering. By one estimate, roughly 75,000 deaths might have been averted in 2005 if every state had delivered care at the quality level of the best performing state.

A 2015 study by Harvard Business Review estimated that the country wasted $1 trillion per year on healthcare spending, reporting:

…Even if the United States implemented all the approaches whose effectiveness has been measured, only 40% of the estimated $1 trillion of wasteful spending would be addressed, leaving a significant opportunity for innovation in all areas of health care.

In an interview with Coral Health executives; Jeremy Mullin (VP, Corporate Development) and Philip Parker (Chief Operating Officer), we discussed issues surrounding waste in the United States healthcare system. Other issues covered included single-payer healthcare systems, how to drive down costs for patients, and how blockchain can help eliminate administrative costs — while giving patients greater access to their medical records and implementing security measures to keep their data safe.

The interview can be heard in its entirety below.

Can Blockchain Take Down Big Pharma And Save Healthcare? Coral Health Thinks So