Two studies assess cost of doc-office paperwork

While how much of a medical practice’s administrative overhead can be classified as “waste” is still open to debate, two new studies posted on the Health Affairs Web site attempt to put a price tag on these clerical tasks and on how much a medical practice must spend before it can extract a check from an insurance company.

In one study, researchers calculated that the annual cost of performing billing-related tasks comes to about $85,276 per physician. In the other, it was estimated that the total cost of the nation’s physician-health plan interactions is somewhere between $23 billion and $31 billion. More Here Electronic Prescription