Healthcare in the United States is becoming increasingly unaffordable, and one of the contributing factors may be the high salaries earned by healthcare employees. Speaking recently at the Symposium on Payment Solutions for Healthcare Providers and Payers in Las Vegas, William Bertschinger, divisional chairman of finance at the Mayo Clinic, said healthcare labor costs are driving systemic inefficiency.

“Seventy percent of the high cost of healthcare is due to labor costs,” Bertschinger said. “There are too many full-time employees and too many employees paid at too high a rate.”

Healthcare Finance News, By Richard Pizzi, 1/27/2010

Tags: Health Policy, healthcare labor