Low-value care, defined as services for which the “potential for harm exceeds the possible benefit,” continues to be pervasive across the U.S. health care system, costing over $345 billion annually and causing both physical and psychological harm to patients. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has disrupted care delivery has the potential to slow or even reverse progress against low-value care. As the immediate crisis subsides, it will be critical for stakeholders across the health care system to take advantage of this transformative moment and reshape the conversation and incentives around low-value care.
A new commentary in the American Journal of Managed Care explores the challenges facing efforts to reduce low-value care delivery and proposes interventions tailored to address these issues in a post-pandemic world. Reflecting upon concepts discussed at the 2019 Summit, “Imagining a World Without Low-Value Care: What Will it Take?,” sponsored by AcademyHealth, the Donaghue Foundation, and the ABIM Foundation, in collaboration with the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health and the Veterans Administration, the authors offer strategies to overcome the largest barriers hindering progress, including:
- Eliminating the financial and nonfinancial incentives that encourage the delivery of more care
- Developing accurate and robust measurement tools
- Helping clinicians to better communicate the consequences and harms of low-value care
Read the full article here.
Read a meeting summary of the “Imagining a World Without Low-Value Care: What Will it Take?” summit here.