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A new report from the Lown Institute finds that hospitals' unnecessary coronary stent use costs Medicare $800 million a year. More

Stents are small mesh tubes inserted into weak or narrow arteries and other passageways to keep them open in patients with coronary artery disease, widen arteries clogged with plaque, and keep blood flowing.

The new report estimated that one in five stents implanted between 2019 and 2021 were unnecessary because the patient was not at high risk for a heart attack, the Lown Institute, an independent research firm, found.

“The overuse of stents is incredibly wasteful and puts hundreds of thousands of patients in harm’s way,” Vikas Saini, a cardiologist and president of the Lown Institute said in a statement. More

By the numbers: Hospitals placed about 1 million stents in Medicare beneficiaries between 2019 and 2021, and more than 1 in 5 met the criteria for overuse, according to the Lown Institute, a health care think tank. More

One Texas hospital has over half of stents placed meeting criteria for overuseopens in a new tab or window, according to the nationwide ranking in a report from the Lown Institute. More

"The frequency at which stents are overused shows that many physicians are struggling to keep up with the evidence," Vikas Sani, MD, cardiologist and president of the Lown Institute, said in an Oct. 31 news release. "To be socially responsible, hospitals need to take a more active role in reducing these unnecessary procedures." More

The researchers said the unnecessary procedures aren’t only costly for Medicare but can also run a patient around $1,600, with Medicare paying the remaining roughly $9,000. Stent procedures also run the risk of tears in the artery, blood clots and kidney damage, according to the report. More

“When physicians continue a practice despite the evidence against it, it becomes more dangerous than useful.” cardiologist Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute, said in statement. “The overuse of stents is incredibly wasteful and puts hundreds of thousands of patients in harm’s way.” More

A report out today from the Lown Institute says unnecessary use of coronary stents could cost Medicare an estimated $800 million a year. Looking at more than 1,700 hospitals and outpatient centers, the think tank determined more than 1 in 5 procedures from 2019 through 2021 met criteria for overuse. More

More than one in five coronary stents doctors placed in Medicare patients from 2019 through 2022 weren't needed; and they cost the federal health program and beneficiaries about $2.4 billion, according to the analysis by Lown Institute, a nonprofit think tank. More