The Vaccine Rollout Is Changing How We Think about Prescription Meds
A new survey reveals that, for the first time, many Americans see pharmaceutical companies as brand names, just like Nike or Amazon More
A new survey reveals that, for the first time, many Americans see pharmaceutical companies as brand names, just like Nike or Amazon More
Covid-caused delays in medical treatments and surgeries are producing data for health care providers to take another look at what’s needed and what isn’t. More
Colorado health officials so abhor the high costs associated with free-standing emergency rooms they’re offering to pay hospitals to shut the facilities down. The state wants hospitals to convert them to other purposes, such as providing primary care or mental health services. More
Let us begin anew with language that reinforces equitable access to care and treatment of African American and Latinx patients, their families, communities, clinicians, and care teams. More
This cohort study examines use of preoperative testing before 3 low-risk ambulatory surgical procedures across diverse practice settings in Michigan. More
How can the avoidance of routine care during the pandemic benefit patients? New research on the physical and financial harms from low-value preventive care show that the pandemic might have a "silver lining." More
Physicians' values and norms save our lives and cost us dearly. More
This Viewpoint proposes 7 elements necessary for a successful transition from a fee-for-service (FFS) to a capitated payment model for primary care physicians, all intended to sustain their ability to improve the quality and value of the care they provide while reducing costs. More
Last year, the Lown Institute, a Brookline, Mass.-based nonpartisan healthcare think tank, broke new ground with the release of the Lown Hospitals Index that includes metrics such as racial inclusivity, pay equity and community benefit spending. The institute is now releasing updated 2021 results for the full index starting with the May 4 announcement of the top hospitals in the U.S. for avoiding overuse of low-value tests and procedures. "What we're trying to show is the hospitals at the top of our list are showing that it can be done. It is quite possible. So, for us the rationale for doing this is to show by example what can be done and then participate in what needs to be a broader movement to have American healthcare to move in that direction. It's only when we're able to do that will we be able to solve the deeper problems in healthcare, including affordability," said Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute. More
This Viewpoint explores existing payment models and waste elimination incentives and proposes a new approach to addressing waste in health care. More
This cohort study of Veterans Health Administration records examines the prevalence of low-value preoperative tests for eye cataract operations and associations with patient demographic characteristics, procedure type, and facility size. More
Overuse of unnecessary healthcare services was most common among for-profit hospitals, nonteaching hospitals and those located in the southern U.S., according to a new review of Medicare claims conducted by the Lown Institute. The study found more than 1.3 million low-value tests and procedures delivered by 3,351 U.S. hospitals between Jan. 1, 2015, and Dec. 31, 2017—a rate of one such unnecessary service delivered to an older adult every 80 seconds. More
In case you missed the avoiding overuse launch event, you can watch the full recording here! Featuring Vikas Saini and Shannon Brownlee along with guest experts Mike Chernew, Rita Redberg, and Mark Smith, as well as hospital leaders Pete Healy and Gary Kaplan. More
More than 1 million tests and procedures that Medicare patients received in hospitals over a three-year period were likely not needed, according to an analysis released today. Most of the top performing hospitals in the Lown Institute Hospital Index are not from large, well-known health systems that appear on the annual rankings of U.S. News and World Report—in fact, only Cleveland Clinic, which ranked 58th on the Lown list, is on the U.S. News honor roll, according to the a statement on findings. More
In what was called a first-of-its-kind list, the Lown Institute on Tuesday released the names of the worst 50 and best 50 hospitals ranked by how frequently their patients had any of 12 procedures largely regarded as unnecessary. Lown president Vikas Saini, MD, said for the hospitals with the most overuse, "it appears there is a culture. The evidence that these procedures are not useful hasn't penetrated or is being ignored." Saini warned that overuse isn't just a matter of the hospitals performing more revenue-generating procedures; patients could be harmed. "When you're getting stuff done that's not necessary, you are subjecting yourself to a risk of harm, and even if the harm is very small, even if the risk is small, it's still real," he said, especially if you're the unfortunate person that develops that complication. More
The Lown Institute, a health care think tank, found more than a million tests and procedures performed in hospitals on Medicare patients from 2016-2018 met established criteria for overuse. “These results are if anything the low end of the estimate,” said Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute. “It speaks to the power of habit, weak penetration of actual science and certainly a lot of prominent financial incentives for hospitals and doctors without any counter-balancing information that patients could use to push back.”
It’s time to consider primary care a “common good” akin to public education and shore up the foundation of the pandemic-battered U.S. health system, report says. More
The merger between Virginia Mason and CHI Franciscan health system in the Seattle area raises questions about maintaining quality and not raising prices. More
"Like so much in American healthcare, the practice outran the evidence: there have been randomized trials that have shown that vertebroplasty for osteoporosis in the elderly is not an effective therapy," Saini said. "New people who are getting into the field may not do it, but people who always did it, they're always going to say, 'Well, I don't trust that evidence, it works for me.' There's a lot of that in medicine." More
Houston boasts of being home to the Texas Medical Center, the world's biggest medical complex. Yet Houston's medical community also holds a distinction that's hardly boast-worthy: It's the worst major metro area in Texas for unnecessary health care tests and procedures. "Overuse in American hospitals is a pervasive problem that needs to be addressed," Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, says in a news release. "Hospitals want to do better, and these objective measures of performance can help them move forward." More