Good morning! I’m Mahadi Hasan Sabbir, a reporter based in Denver for KFF Health News. I specialize in covering health policy in the mountain states region. When I’m not busy reporting on health news, you can find me climbing mountains, hitting the slopes, or planning my year-long RV journey across America in 2024. If you have any tips on stories, campgrounds, or cool roadside attractions, feel free to send them my way at markianh@kff.org.
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Today’s edition: Federal health officials are releasing additional doses of a highly sought-after drug to protect infants from RSV. Despite many states banning the practice, pregnant women are still being shackled while in custody. But first…
Medical advancements can be costly. Take Wegovy, for example, a highly successful obesity drug that we recently discovered may also reduce the risk of heart disease. If just 10 percent of Medicare beneficiaries start taking this drug, taxpayers could potentially be responsible for nearly $27 billion annually. So, how can the country afford the latest and most effective medicines? One possibility is to stop spending billions of dollars each year on treatments that don't actually benefit patients and may even harm them. As I mentioned in a previous article, up to 30 percent of the $3 trillion spent on healthcare annually goes towards low-value care.
Here are a few examples: Doctors prescribing unnecessary opiates or antipsychotics, routine screening for vitamin D deficiency, and ordering cancer-screening tests late in life when they are unlikely to provide significant benefits. These types of treatments not only increase costs but also lead to health complications and hinder the delivery of more appropriate care.
Unfortunately, the fee-for-service healthcare system in the United States incentivizes doctors to provide more care rather than the right care. This makes it incredibly challenging to eliminate wasteful spending. Even when doctors have no financial incentives to order additional tests or services, it remains difficult to eradicate low-value care.
For instance, a recent analysis conducted in Colorado revealed that patients, as well as private and public healthcare providers, continue to engage in low-value care practices.
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