Should Medicare pay more for the same service delivered in an outpatient facility when it's owned by a hospital? That's the key question behind the push for site-neutral payments, a policy change that federal and state policymakers are considering. More
The Bernard Lown Award for Social Responsibility was created in honor of Dr. Lown after his death in 2021, recognizes young clinicians who stand out for their bold leadership in social justice, environmentalism, global peace, or other humanitarian efforts. More
The USPSTF just lowered the recommended screening age for breast cancer from 50 to 40. What were the reasons for this change and what are the potential harms and benefits? More
See what policymakers across the country doing to improve transparency and accountability around hospital community benefit spending. More
Last week, Lown president Dr. Vikas Saini was presented with the Donabedian International Award. In his acceptance remarks, Dr. Saini shared his vision for a future of medicine that uses new technologies for socially responsible goals, while still keeping empathy and the human connection in medicine at the forefront. More
Safety net hospitals across the US are closing at a disturbing rate. What's driving this trend, and what's the impact on communities? More
Hospitals still have a long way to go. A recent analysis by the Lown Institute, a health care think tank, found that more than three-quarters of nonprofit hospitals spent less on charity care and community investment than they reaped in tax breaks. More
A recent editorial published in JAMA Dermatology discussed the balance between prevention and overdiagnosis of skin cancer. This comes in response to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force concluding for the fourth time in a row that visual skin cancer screening has insufficient evidence to support its population-wide benefit. How do we know when we’ve crossed from prevention to overuse, and is there anything we can do to keep the balance? More
What is the hospital community benefit standard and why is it getting so much attention? If you want to get up to date fast on this key health policy issue, we've got you covered... More
An April report from the Lown Institute, a think tank on health-care equity, said nonprofit hospitals are spending less on charity care than they receive in benefits from their tax-exempt status. More
“Polypharmacy”, as doctors call it, imposes a big drag on health. A recent study at a hospital in Liverpool found that nearly one in five hospital admissions was caused by adverse reactions to drugs. The Lown Institute, an American think-tank, reckons that, between 2020 and 2030, medication overload in America could cause more than 150,000 premature deaths and 4.5m hospital admissions. More
Two recent analyses of expensive medications indicate that many drugs are being priced above their actual clinical benefit. More
The Lown Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, argues in its 2019 report, Medication Overload: America’s Other Drug Problem, that Americans are experiencing an epidemic of medication that is particularly harmful to older adults. According to the report, more than 40% of older adults take five or more prescription medicines daily, and 20% take ten drugs or more. More
“I think what's interesting to me about Saint Vincent Charity Medical Center is that they do really very well on our measures of clinical outcomes and of value, which is to say avoiding unnecessary treatments and, you know, being cost efficient in what they do,” Dr. Vikas Saini said. More
A detailed recap of our Fair Share launch event, featuring health policymakers and experts from California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Oregon. More
"It’s an open secret that not all spending hospitals can claim as community benefits are actually meaningful for community health," the nonprofit's president, Vikas Saini, and policy analyst, Judith Garber, wrote. "The broad definition of community benefit — one of many loopholes in the U.S. tax code — allows hospitals to include spending on items that don’t directly address community health needs. That’s why we focused on the spending that matters most for local communities, some of which are losing tens of millions of dollars in property tax revenue to support nonprofit hospitals." More
“In the last 30 years, there’s been a huge increase in the amount of administrators in hospitals and the money that’s flowing through the health care system,” said Dr. Vikas Saini, a physician and president of the Lown Institute, a health care think tank.
More
"Hospitals that serve working people tend to have lower margins, lower profits, and less of a cushion in the event of a crisis," said Dr. Vikas Saini, a physician and the president of the Lown Institute, a health care think tank. More
According to a new report by the Lown Institute, close to 80% of more than 1,700 nonprofit hospitals studied “spent less on charity care and community investment than the estimated value of their tax breaks.” The report also found that this so-called “fair share” deficit, which was $14.2 billion in 2020, was “enough to erase the medical debts of 18 million Americans or rescue the finances of more than 600 rural hospitals at risk of closure.” More
Are New York hospitals spending enough on charity care and community investments to justify receiving tax exemptions? The answer is no, says nonpartisan health policy think tank Lown Institute, for a total of 26 hospitals spread across the state.
More