Firearm violence is an ever-present concern, and Black Americans are disproportionately subjected to it. How does this impact the clinicians caring for victims, who must deal with the trauma and injustice daily? More
Can hospitals advance patient safety in a profit-driven system? A recent study identifies persistent rates of adverse events in hospitals. More
The explosive growth worries Vikas Saini, a cardiologist and president of the Lown Institute, a think tank that examines quality, cost, and equity across health care. He said doctors are prescribing proton therapy in a gray area — they think it may be better for a patient than the cheaper alternative, but there’s no hard proof.
“Everybody knows the game: You get an approval, and you go out on the market, then you expand the indications,” Saini said. “It’s called indication creep, or scope creep.”
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A faulty algorithm has led to racial inequities in kidney care for years. Now, the movement to eliminate it has gained traction. Could this be a step towards a more equitable system? More
How can we hold hospitals accountable for their community benefit spending? At a recent webinar hosted by Community Catalyst, Lown leaders discussed measuring hospital community investment and opportunities for advocacy. More
Hospitals are facing persistent staffing issues and many are in poor financial shape....but their CEOs keep getting bonuses. Could pay equity be the solution that stabilizes our hospitals? More
An investigation of one Alzheimer's Disease drug and the approval of another offer lessons on accountability and evidence for new drug approvals. More
"If we're ever going to get to the great health system that Americans deserve, we have to call out bad behavior," Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute, said. "The Shkreli Awards are a mirror that's hard to look into, but we've got to do it." More
Last week, we hosted the 6th annual Shkreli Awards, calling out the worst profiteers and dysfunction in the healthcare system in 2022. In a perfect world, these awards wouldn’t be necessary. In our world, we have a plethora of candidates to consider. More
“If we’re ever going to get to the great health system that Americans deserve, we have to call out bad behavior,” Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, said in a statement. “The Shkreli Awards are a mirror that’s hard to look into, but we’ve got to do it.” More
Lown Institute president Vikas Saini, MD, told MedPage Today that this year's list reads like "a tragic comedy of grift and profiteering." If the actions of these companies and individuals seem to be worse than in past years, Saini said that's because governmental agencies and media organizations appear to be "more vigilant in calling out bad actors." More
A new series of articles on healthcare segregation provides a call to action and a way forward for all actors in the healthcare system looking to improve racial and economic equity More
From massive insurance fraud to a dentist that intentionally broke patients’ teeth, here are this year’s worst examples of greed and dysfunction in healthcare. More
Amid a wave of intensified criticism of hospital CEO pay at large, one source continues to pay close attention to the ratio of executive compensation to worker wages at more than 300 health systems. That source is Lown Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that measures hospitals' and health systems' social responsibility through 53 metrics related to inclusivity, pay equity, community benefit, care value and outcomes. More
Can community empowerment solve persistent population health disparities that other strategies have failed to fix? More
Because of its nonprofit status, Ascension avoids more than $1 billion a year in federal, state and local taxes, according to the Lown Institute, a health care think tank. Until the pandemic, Ascension was consistently profitable, earning hundreds of millions a year. More
While the pandemic was a breaking point for many healthcare workers, some hospital systems were cutting staff well before 2020... More
Insurers are required to publish their negotiated prices for all services. The problem is, there's too much data... More
After enduring years of stressful and heartbreaking work through the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare workers are quitting in droves. What can we do about the healthcare staffing crisis? More