Inefficient practices and procedures should be dumped from Australia's health system to help slow ballooning costs, says the boss of Australia's biggest health insurer, Medibank Private.
Chief executive George Savvides says he wants state and federal governments to work out what provides value for patients in the health care system rather than squabble over money for funding all the time.
"The department of health, whether it's federal or state, needs to be much more collaborative and spend less time on how much we need to get," Mr Savvides told reporters after addressing a CEDA function on Thursday.
"Can we also talk about some other things: how does the system work? Where are its inefficiencies? Ask the health funds - they'll tell you."
Mr Savvides said it was ultimately for clinicians to determine what was of value for patients.
But he said there was a proliferation of activity, some of which did not have a clinical basis.
For example, invasive surgery sometimes did little for a patient.
It would be better if unproductive procedures were eliminated so that more money could be devoted to procedures that were of real value to patients.
Mr Savvides said a discussion on what was of value in the health system was "way overdue".
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