Efforts to improve adoption of healthcare information technology could reduce clinical and administrative components of healthcare costs, according to the Milken Institute, which pegs the impact of chronic disease on the U.S. economy at $1 trillion – and growing.

The impact could balloon to $6 trillion by the middle of the century, the Milken report released last month says.

The Milken Institute study, An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease, indicates that seven chronic diseases – cancer, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart disease, pulmonary conditions and mental illness – have a total impact on the economy of $1.3 trillion annually. Of that amount, the report said, about $1.1 trillion represents the cost of lost productivity.

“By investing in good health, we can add billions of dollars in economic growth in the coming decades,” said Ross DeVol, director of health economics and regional economics at the Milken Institute and principal author of the report. The report also recommends additional development and adoption of information technology.