While Harris and Walz have challenged corporate power, politicians do so only because voters are pushing for it, cautioned Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, a health-care think tank.
“The health-care corporations now are mega-regional players. They have huge clout. It would really take much more than a single politician,” Saini said. “It’s going to take a broader movement in the country. … Maybe we’ll get there as there is a lot of pain.”
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Fixing American healthcare will require more than mere tweaks around the edges. Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Boston-based Lown Institute, believes that it will require a return to medicine’s humanist roots. In this interview he describes some of the ways in which many healthcare organizations prioritize revenue and profit over patients and communities. He also explains why he remains optimistic that Hippocratic principles will ultimately prevail.
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Every day, 750 older Americans end up in the hospital because of serious side effects from one or more medications, according to the Lown Institute, a health care think tank. And the chance you will experience a serious side effect from a prescribed medication goes up around 10% with each additional medication you take.
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St. Luke’s University Health Network has been recognized by the Lown Institute as one of the most socially responsible hospitals in America, receiving ‘A’ grades in equity, value and outcomes on the 2024-25 Lown Institute Hospitals Index.
Out of more than 3,500 hospitals measured by Lown, only 5% achieved honor roll status, with St. Luke’s ranking among this select group of high performers.
“Great care is only great if everyone can access it,” said Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute. “We need hospitals that are not only leaders in clinical care, but also strong community partners-and the hospitals at the top of our list are showing the way.”
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Peconic Bay Medical Center has received accolades statewide: PBMC has been recognized as the most socially responsible hospital in New York State by the
Lown Institute Hospital Index. According to the report, PBMC was ranked first out of 128 statewide for social responsibility, and 79 out of 2,758 nationally.
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) has been cited as Vermont’s most socially responsible acute care hospital by the Lown Institute, a Massachusetts-based non-partisan healthcare think tank.
The distinction is based on an evaluation of more than 3,500 U.S. hospitals using more than 50 metrics in categories such as health equity, value of care, and patient outcomes. Results are based on data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Internal Revenue Service, and other sources.
“We are thrilled that our efforts to promote social responsibility are making a difference in our community, and that they are being quantified and recognized on a national level. Being recognized as a leader in Vermont is especially rewarding, knowing how incredibly socially responsible all hospitals in Vermont are!” said Christopher Dougherty, BMH’s President and CEO, in a statement.
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UCHealth is proud to be named one of the nation’s most socially responsible health care systems by the Lown Institute. The 2024-25 Lown Institute Hospitals Index released earlier this week ranks UCHealth No. 2 nationwide according to the institute’s analysis of health equity, value of care and patient outcomes.
“UCHealth is committed to improving the lives of our patients and building healthier communities across the state,” said Elizabeth Concordia, UCHealth president and CEO. “We are pleased to be recognized by the Lown Institute as one of the nation’s most socially responsible health care systems. This recognition is a compliment for our staff and providers who work hard every day to provide the very best care to our patients.”
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"One of our biggest takeaways of the past five years that we've been publishing this index has been, if you want to measure what matters, then you really have to include equity,” Saini said during a news conference.
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Roughly one-quarter of acute care hospitals in New York earned the top grade for social responsibility, down slightly from the proportion of hospitals that earned the mark last year, a new report shows.
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The Lown Institute published its 2024 list of America's most socially responsible hospitals June 25, highlighting the top hospitals for social responsibility in every state.
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"Great care is only great if everyone can access it," Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, said in a statement. "Socially responsible hospitals are trusted to provide high-quality care to all, and their success directly improves the health and economic stability of their communities."
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Others remain skeptical that PE has a positive effect on the industry. Vikas Saini, president of the nonpartisan think tank Lown Institute, told Healthcare Brew that the deterioration of quality care is his “biggest and first concern.”
“The kinds of returns that private equity expects and the kinds of methods they’re used to using outside of healthcare—which are the ones they’re importing into healthcare—are unlikely to give us that kind of an innovative, extraordinary startup that we all want to send our family to,” Saini said.
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Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute, is speaking out on high hospital CEO pay. Dr. Saini recently discussed rising compensation with the Fresno Bee.
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For the report, Lown calculated fair share spending based on IRS form 990 for the fiscal year ending 2021 by comparing estimated value of hospital tax exemptions to money spent on meaningful community investments.
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“When you add it all up, between the CEO compensation, the bonus for some kind of performance metric, and all the other vice presidents, I think these are legitimate questions for the board of that hospital,” Saini said. “The fact pattern raises a lot of questions.”
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About 80% of all nonprofit hospitals' charity care falls behind tax breaks, according to a new Lown Institute report – and some are short by hundreds of millions of dollars.
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The Cleveland Clinic is high among U.S. nonprofit hospitals not doing enough to directly benefit their communities, and University Hospitals ranks second in Ohio behind the Clinic, according to the Lown Hospitals Index 2024 Community Benefit ranking.
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Grady Memorial Hospital ranks in the top 10 of the nation’s nonprofit hospitals for spending more on charity care than what they receive in tax breaks, according to a new report and ranking published Tuesday. Wellstar Health System also showed up high on the list — 4th in the nation for community spending by nonprofit health systems.
The rankings were based on 2021 tax filings examined by the Lown Institute, a nonprofit think tank. Lown examined close to 70 Georgia hospitals.
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The vast majority of nonprofit hospitals aren't providing a level of community support equal to the value of what they are receiving in tax breaks, according to a study published Tuesday.
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