Low-value care—a term used to describe preventive services that offer limited benefits—costs healthcare providers a substantial amount of money, according to new findings published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
The study’s authors focused on seven low-value services that all received a “D” recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The list included low-risk screening for cardiovascular disease with rest or stress electrocardiography, asymptomatic bacteriuria screening in adults who aren’t pregnant, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease screening in asymptomatic patients and other low-graded services.
Examining data from 2007 to 2016, the authors found that these services were ordered more than 31 million times per year. The cost associated with that utilization was $478 million per year.
“The negative clinical impact and total costs of these low-value services are likely larger as these findings capture neither all D-rated services nor the cascade of downstream health care utilization after their use,” wrote lead author Carlos Irwin A. Oronce, MD, of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and University of California Los Angeles, and colleagues. “Reducing the use of Grade D services represents an opportunity to improve patient-centered outcomes while safely reducing US health care spending.”
The full assessment is available here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.