NEW YORK – A new report indicates that a combination of better-coordinated public- and private-sector care, stronger patient awareness of health risks and wellness and improved information systems to eliminate fraud and abuse could save $3.6 trillion over the next decade.

Such savings would represent a 50 percent reduction in wasteful spending in healthcare, according to the report, issued by New York-based Thomson Reuters.

Raymond Fabius, MD, Thomson Reuters' chief medical officer, said stakeholders in the healthcare system must do their part to achieve a major health culture shift in the United States.

"The simple reality is that in the U.S. we practice sick care, not healthcare,” he said. “The majority of our efforts are directed at highly expensive fixes to patients that are already ill, rather than keeping them healthy in the first place."

Fabius authored the report with Bob Kelley, vice president of healthcare analytics at Thomson Reuters' Healthcare & Science.

Fabius used obesity as an example of unnecessarily increasing costs in healthcare. Annual obesity-related costs have been estimated to be as high as $187 billion in 2008 dollars. Evidence indicates obesity underlies the most costly illnesses, like diabetes, heart disease and many types of cancers.

"Research indicates that higher productivity and commensurately lowered cost of care comes when people are repeatedly encouraged by their caregivers to stay well by making diet, lifestyle and behavioral changes,” Fabius said. “Purchasers of healthcare – primarily government and large employers – can incentivize their employees to make healthier lifestyle decisions and insist on healthier behavior in the workplace.”

“Finally, better motivated and educated patients can take more personal responsibility for themselves, their families and their friends in staying well,” he added.

According to the study, these actions can save between $37 million and $140 billion, depending upon how widespread the actions are adopted.

"Providers, payers and physicians can achieve their best results by intervening with young families to create improved wellness outcomes over time; the heavier burden for illness containment can then fall on treating older segments of the population,” said Fabius.