Defining Low-Value Care and Improving Healthcare Cost-Effectiveness

A recent report, published in JAMA Health Forum, distinguishes between no-value care and low-value care. The authors ask five questions of health policy legislators in hopes of improving healthcare quality while reducing costs. They discuss how the amount of low-value care can be reduced, if the price of high-value care can be reduced, and the consequences of low-value care. The authors also consider a transition from low-value care to high-value care.

The authors remark, “Low-value care can be converted to high-value care if the price of the service is sufficiently lowered. To do this, health policy makers must have the ability to negotiate (ie, the ability to say no to reimbursing health-improving but cost-ineffective health services). Price changes could be achieved through demand-side (eg, value-based insurance design or reference pricing) or supply-side (eg, global budgets) policies that discourage investment in cost-ineffective services.” Read more here.

(Source: Pandya et al., JAMA Health Forum, 3/10/21)