The Bloomberg index calculates an efficiency score based on a nation's life expectancy along with relative and absolute health expenditures.
On the other hand, many of the most common and important operations carried out, like cataract procedures to save eyesight, wouldn't have any effect on lifespan.
Efforts to increase market transparency include hospital reporting requirements and insurers offering their customers estimates of provider costs for particular conditions.
[6] Their research analyzed the dialysis industry to ascertain whether its reliance on the Medicare prospective payment system incentivizes hospitals to sacrifice the quality of care administered in order to reduce costs.
For example, if a patient is repeatedly misdiagnosed, they may return to the ER or doctor's office presenting the same symptoms that remain unresolved, increasing the overall use of health care resources.
"[8] One investigation found that "Variation in clinical practice is substantial and is associated with poorer health outcomes, increased costs, and disparities in care.
Challenges to reducing variation include heterogeneity and gaps in clinicians’ knowledge; economic incentives for undesired clinical behaviors; concerns about malpractice risk; physicians’ value of autonomy and personal preference; inadequate communication and decision support tools; and imbalances between clinical demand and resource capacity.
Hence, efforts to legislate or establish policies governing care have been limited because they impede the common sense that there are nearly always exceptions to a given rule.
"[9] Effectively sharing information among the providers participating in a patient's care can increase quality and reduce costs.