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Low-cost, high-volume health services account for a high percentage of unnecessary health spending, adding strain to the health care system, new UCLA-led research suggests. In the United States, a substantial proportion of health care costs is allocated to low-value care: patient care providing no net health benefit, such as early diagnostic imaging for uncomplicated low-back pain. Healthcare services costing $538 or less were administered much more frequently than services exceeding that cost. For the study, researchers — led by John Mafi, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a natural scientist in health policy at the RAND Corporation — analyzed data for 44 low-value health services in 2014. Analyzing data on 5.5 million patients in Virginia, the researchers found that services providing no net health benefits to patients cost that state’s health care system more than $586 million in 2014. Of that amount, 65 percent went to low-cost, high-volume services such as unnecessary lab tests. “Low-value” care, such as unnecessary lab tests, could be reduced safely to cut expenses, a new analysis suggests. Low-cost, high-volume health services account for a high percentage of unnecessary health spending, adding strain to the health care system, new research suggests.Low-Cost, High-Volume Services Make Up Big Portion of Spending on Unneeded Health Care
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Emergency Departments, Behavioral Health and More
Health Affairs Blog
High-Volume, Low-Cost Services Reflect Most Unnecessary Medical Spending, Study Suggests
Becker’s Healthcare – Morgan Haefner
Research Suggests a Reduction in ‘Low Value’ Services Can Safely Cut Expenses
Science Daily
Low-Cost, High-Volume Services Make Up a Big Portion of Unneeded Health Care Spending
Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation
Low-Cost, High-Volume Services Make Up a Big Portion of Unneeded Health Care Spending
University of Michigan Health Lab
