An investigation into the FDA's "breakthrough" device designation shows that devices are being approved based on little evidence, with high potential for profit to device-makers. More
Two-thirds of hospitals in the U.S. are classified as non-profits, yet there is a huge disconnect between the billions of dollars of tax exemptions that many of these institutions receive and how much of those savings goes back into community investment and charity care, as a recent study from the Lown Institute found. 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
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
Register now for our Fair Share launch on April 12! More
The approval of Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm through the accelerated pathway has brought new attention to needed improvements to this process. More
There've been a variety of awards in recent years for the organization now known collectively as Bitterroot Health. But the latest from the LOWN Institute is unique, rating 3,000 hospitals and health care systems on criteria such as social responsibility with regard to cost, healthy outcomes and benefits to a community. More
During this 33 minute conversation Dr. Saini and Ms. Garber discuss CEO bonuses during the pandemic, discuss generally CEO compensation as an outlier in the nonprofit sector, discuss the substance of their research findings including what explains CEO compensation and conclude by discussing what criteria should be used in calculating CEO compensation. More
The health care industry will soon be offering elective surgery where Americans once bought their underpants. “There is a certain logic to it,” said Vikas Saini, a cardiologist who is head of the Lown Institute, a think tank. He sees it as part of a general trend “towards the commercialisation of healthcare”. Dr Saini thinks that malls in wealthier suburbs might hold a particular allure for hospitals. “The most desirable patient is the upscale patient who is healthy, who has commercial insurance and who can get some kind of elective surgery, like their knee or something, that’s very lucrative,” he said. More
Do nonprofit hospitals have higher unreimbursed Medicaid costs than for-profit hospitals? More
Patient advocates and researchers uncover concerning patterns in financial relationships between industry funding and patient advocacy organizations. More