U.S. physicians spend nearly four times more than their Canadian counterparts on administrative costs

A new University of Toronto study published in the August issue of Health Affairs, reports that U.S. physician practices spend almost four times as much money and 10 times as many hours on paperwork than Canadian practices. “The Canadian system is by no means perfect and often gets a lot of criticism, but there are points in time where we have to sit back and say our system does allow access for people and does provide quality care and it does deliver it in an efficient fashion compared to the U.S.,” said Dr. Dante Morra, lead author of the study. American practices spend $83,000 per doctor every year dealing with health insurers and other payers compared to Canadian practices that spend only $22,000. In addition, nurses and medical assistants in the U.S. spend 20.6 hours per week on administrative duties associated with payers and health insurers, whereas in Ontario, that work amounts to just 2.5 hours. Clinicians, physicians, and nurses are best suited to provide patient care but in the U.S., a significant amount of time spent is spent just dealing with paperwork associated with multiple different insurance companies. Despite the U.S.’s hefty spending, Morra said that Canada boasts better patient outcomes.