Why Reducing Low-Value Care Fails to Bend the Cost Curve, and Why We Should Do it Anyway

Document Type : Viewpoint

Authors

Radboud University Medical Center, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, IQ healthcare, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Keywords


Background

Low-value care provides either a modest benefit or even no benefit at all to the patient, while it is potentially harmful, may not reflect patient preferences, and may result in considerable costs. Several US studies have estimated the nationwide costs of medical waste, including low-value care, at hundreds of billions of dollars.1,2 Health systems can reduce low-value care by targeted de-implementation interventions, of which many have been proven successful.3,4 Studies into de-implementation regularly estimate substantial cost savings to the health system, claiming it will save society millions of dollars. ...(Read more...)

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