Low-value Care

Forgiving medical debt is crucial, but it won’t fix our health care system | Opinion

Abstract: According to the Lown Institute, Michigan’s nonprofit hospitals spent just 1.76% of their expenses on community benefit programs like charity care — the lowest among 20 states studied. That leaves a lot of room for hospitals to do more to serve their communities.

Publication: Detroit Free Press

Date Published: August 6, 2025

Author(s): Minal Patel

View This Resource

To eliminate medication overload, serious cultural, educational, and policy changes are needed. This action plan offers recommendations for policymakers, health care institutions, clinicians, and patients across five key categories to reduce harm from multiple medication use. Suggested Citation: Eliminating medication overload: A national action plan. Working Group on Medication Overload. Brookline, MA: The Lown Institute, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46241/LI.YLBW4885

Pharmaceutical marketing is a significant factor in the growing public health crisis of medication overload, which puts millions of older adults at risk of preventable harm and premature death. This issue brief provides recommendations to reduce pharmaceutical industry influence by limiting pharma sales rep visits to clinicians and direct-to-consumer advertising.

This issue brief provides recommendations for clinical practice guidelines and electronic health records that would give clinicians the information they need to appropriately prescribe and deprescribe.