More than 1 in 10 veterans receive low-value care in the VA health system
Overuse is prevalent in hospitals across the country -- but what about VA hospitals, where providers are paid a salary rather than fee-for-service? More
Should Medicare cover blood tests for cancer screening?
Congress is considering having Medicare fund blood screening tests, also known as liquid biopsies. Could this lead to cascade events and medical overuse? More
Fewer Than 2% of Hospitals Excelling at Health Equity, Value
Of the 3,600 hospitals included in this year’s assessment, 66 ranked among the most socially responsible, meaning they earned an “A” rating in at least three of the measurement categories, the Lown Institute said. That represents fewer than 2 percent of participating hospitals, indicating serious room for growth in terms of health equity. More
Are You Taking Too Many Meds?
According to a 2020 report by the Lown Institute, a health-systems think tank that tracks prescription trends, 42% of older Americans routinely take five or more prescription drugs a day and close to 20% take 10 or more. More
The drug problem that nobody talks about: Overmedication in seniors
What's needed to tackle the problem? The Lown Institute's action plan offers recommendations in five key areas. More
Surprise billing — another potential risk of overuse
After getting spinal fusion surgery, Lisa French was charged $300,000 after the hospital had quoted her $1,300 for the surgery. When she was unable to pay, the nonprofit hospital sued. As the spinal fusion industry booms, this case shows another risk of unnecessary surgeries -- getting overcharged and potentially sued by hospitals. More
Report: Hospitals performed 100K unnecessary surgeries in COVID’s first year. What about Houston?
Texas ranked 47th of 50 states in avoiding unnecessary procedures, according to a report by the Lown Institute, a Massachusetts think tank, which found that hospitals across the country performed about 100,000 unnecessary surgeries in 2020. Unnecessary procedures cost the health care system as much as $101 billion a year in wasted spending, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. More
Should prostate cancer screening guidelines differ by race?
Should we recommend earlier prostate cancer screening for Black men, who have a higher risk of prostate cancer mortality? We examine the pros and cons of this question raised by a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine. More
The Cerebral scandal brings ADHD overprescription into the spotlight
A telehealth company's downfall sheds light on the overprescription of stimulants to ADHD patients More
More than 100,000 Medicare patients had unnecessary surgeries in first year of pandemic
Last year, the Lown Institute, a nonprofit healthcare think tank based in Needham, Massachusetts, reported that hospitals performed more than 1 million unnecessary tests and procedures on Medicare patients from 2016 to 2018. Unnecessary tests and procedures can put patients at risk of complications and drive up the cost of care. More
Stents don’t work? A look back at the research
What's the evidence behind PCI, and why do hospitals keep doing these procedures? We revisit this issue with a look back at research and interviews over last few years to give you the answers. More
Rates of unnecessary procedures persisted through pandemic, study shows
Despite the risks posed by COVID-19, hospitals continued to perform eight common, low-value procedures during the first year of the pandemic at a rate similar to 2019, according to a Lown Institute analysis published Tuesday. More
The best hospitals for avoiding unnecessary services: Lown Institute
For the ranking, Lown examined service use measures at more than 3,100 hospitals. Data in the ranking came from the Medicare claims database and spanned 2018 to 2020. Eight common procedures — including hysterectomy for benign disease, coronary stents for stable heart disease and spinal fusion for low back pain — were measured. Four tests were also considered. Hospitals with the capacity to do four or more of the services were ranked. More
Hospitals performed 100,000 unnecessary surgeries in the first year of COVID-19, Lown Institute says
U.S. hospitals performed more than 100,000 surgeries on older patients during the first year of the pandemic, according to a new Lown Institute analysis. The healthcare think tank relied on Medicare claims data and analyzed eight common low-value procedures. It called the 100,000 procedures unnecessary and potentially harmful in a press release. It found that between March and December 2020, among the most-performed surgeries were coronary stents and back surgeries. More
VIDEO: Hospital overuse during Covid-19
In the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, did hospitals curb unnecessary and potentially harmful services? Watch the video of the roundtable discussion on overuse during Covid-19 to find out! More
Thirty percent of Covid-19 patients were prescribed antibiotics in outpatient setting
Overprescribing of antibiotics for Medicare patients with Covid-19 was rampant in the first year of the pandemic, research from the CDC finds. More
When it comes to life expectancy, we don’t get what we pay for
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
A big downside of MRI for breast cancer screening: More cascade events
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
What have we learned after ten years of “Choosing Wisely”?
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
3D mammograms aren’t the solution to false positives in breast cancer screening
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