Low-Value Care Briefing

On Wednesday, September 28, 2022, V-BID Center director, A. Mark Fendrick, served as the keynote speaker for the Smarter Health Care Coalition virtual LVC Briefing. 

Speakers discussed key takeaways from a VBID Health report released in May, which analyzed data from all payer claims databases (APCDs) from four states – Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Maine – to quanitfy the utilization and spending on 48 specific low-value servuces by commercial payers in 2019. Key points included: 

  • In 2019, commercial payers in the four states paid more than $630 Million on the 48 low-value services measured, of which nearly $100 million was directly paid by patients.
  • A substantial portion of LVC expenditures were concentrated in high-volume LVC services and in services that were frequently used in low-value clinical settings.
  • APCDs can be used to better target unnecessary medical services and can inform promising state-wide interventions to potentially reduce harm, enhance equity, and lower health care costs.
Dr. Fendrick’s presentation and associated resources are available below.