Medical Debt in America
A national research and policy forum on May 15, 2025 in Washington, DC
2024 Shkreli Awards
A top ten list of the worst examples of healthcare profiteering and dysfunction each year
Back surgery overuse
200,000 unnecessary procedures at a cost of $2 billion to Medicare
2024 Social Responsibility Rankings
Which of America’s hospitals performed the best this year?
2024 BLASR
Learn more about our most recent winner of the Bernard Lown Award for Social Responsibility, Dr. Lilia Cervantes!
The State of Medical Debt in the U.S.
How do we address the growing problem of medical debt in the United States?
2024 Fair Share Results
Are hospitals giving back as much as they take in tax exemptions?
Avoiding Overuse: Coronary Stents
How professional inertia harms patients and wastes billions of dollars
America’s Most Racially Inclusive Hospitals
Socially responsible hospitals serve everyone in their communities.
Pay Equity
How much should we pay nonprofit hospital CEOs? What are we rewarding them for — and what metrics could we base their salaries on instead?
About
The Lown Institute is a think tank generating bold ideas for a just and caring system for health. more
FEATURED
Leadership
Vikas Saini
President
Blog
Tackling medical debt in America: Insights from experts and advocates
“We’re all here because this issue is a moral stain on the fabric of the country… We’re also here because if we want to fix this, we can," Dr. Vikas Saini told the crowd at the 2025 Lown conference on Medical Debt in America. More
California, New York have highest hospital property tax exemptions
Hospitals in 18 states own a total of $170 billion in assessed real property value and benefit from a total of $4.3 billion in real estate tax exemptions. However, this benefit is not spread out equally among states. More
Hospitals benefit from billions in property tax exemptions
These 20 hospitals avoided nearly $1 billion in property taxes. More