The life expectancy of the average American dropped by 2 years in 2020, but by only a few months in peer countries. This discrepancy gets worse when you adjust for sex, race, and ethnicity. This is despite the fact that the US spends the most money on healthcare in the world. How do we get such poor health outcomes with such high spending? More
As MRI has become a more popular screening tool for women at low or average risk of cancer, researchers caution that one MRI can easily "cascade" into more medical medical services and diagnoses More
How often did hospitals perform low-value services in the first year of COVID? Register now for our Hospital Overuse in COVID roundtable discussion May 17 to find out. More
"There's sort of this conspiracy of silence in which everything goes along pell-mell, merrily business as usual," said Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, which publishes research on unnecessary procedures. "Hospitals have no incentive to say, 'are you sure everything we're doing is needed?' Hospitals are in the business of collecting revenue, and so it's not that they're deliberately engaging in ripping off communities, it's that they have no incentive to try to be better, and they have plenty of disincentives." More
Hospitals taken in billions more than they spend on communities. How could we change the nonprofit hospital community benefit standard to improve accountability? More
Over the past decade, what has the Choosing Wisely program taught us about strategies and obstacles to reducing low-value care? Vikas Saini discusses on the NEJM podcast. More
Are nonprofit hospital earning their tax breaks? Watch the video from our recent fair share spending launch to learn more. More
Health systems across the U.S. made Lown Institute's new rankings lists for organizations where charity care and community investment spending was less or more than the value of their tax exemption. The rankings, released April 12 by the nonpartisan healthcare think tank, examine meaningful community benefit spending for nonprofit hospital systems nationwide. More
The Lown Hospitals Index 2022 Community Benefit ranking found the Clinic had the fourth-highest fair share deficit among U.S. nonprofit hospitals at $611 million. The fair share deficit is the difference between the estimated amount a hospital system receives in tax breaks versus the amount it directly invests into its community. More
“It’s important for all of us to start understanding exactly how tax exemptions are working and what we’re actually getting for it,” says Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute. “The dollars we’re not seeing in taxes are dollars that could be spent on education, firefighters, police and safety, nutrition programs—you name it.” More
Nonprofit hospital systems are expected to give back to their communities in amounts that justify their massive tax breaks. But a new report from the Lown Institute shows this is rarely the case. More
“It’s an important issue because our nonprofit hospitals really are participants in a social compact,” said Dr. Vikas Saini, president and CEO of the Lown Institute, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit. “This is now a big business, there are many many dollars flowing through. It behooves us to understand what the tax exemption is doing, what it’s for and whether it’s still a fair dispensation.” More
What goes into measuring the "world's best hospitals"? More
One of the big selling points of 3D mammograms is their potential to reduce false positive results. However, a new study shows that 3D mammograms don't reduce false positives as much as you would think. More
Register now for our Fair Share launch on April 12! More
What drives hospital segregation and how can we combat this trend? More
Can doctors "prescribe" social supports like financial assistance to improve health? More
The approval of Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm through the accelerated pathway has brought new attention to needed improvements to this process. More
Can you name a prescription drug that makes you healthy? What would it be? Over 66% of the US population takes prescription medication regularly. The elderly are in worse shape. As a group, 40% of them take five or more prescriptions, and nearly 10% take ten or more prescription drugs daily, according to a 2020 report from the nonpartisan think tank Lown Institute. More