- Low-Value Care Persists Five Years into Choosing Wisely Campaign Modern Healthcare by Maria Castellucci — The Choosing Wisely campaign, which launched five years ago, hasn't curbed the widespread use of low-value services even as physicians and health systems make big investments in the effort, a new report found. The analysis, released Tuesday in Health Affairs, said a decrease in unnecessary health care services "appear to be slow in moving" since the campaign was formed in 2012. The report found that recent research shows only small decreases in care for certain low-value services and even increases for some low-value services. The Choosing Wisely campaign was created by ABIM Foundation and Consumer Reports to raise awareness in the healthcare community about unnecessary care and encourage providers to change practices.
- CMS Experiment Saves Millions, Decreases Hospital Visits Modern Healthcare by Virgil Dickson — CMS has seen a drop in avoidable hospitalizations of seniors and generated nearly $50 million in savings from an experiment that aimed to keep nursing home residents out of inpatient care. The agency recently touted the results of its three-year Initiative to Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations among Nursing Facility Residents, which saw a 17 percent relative reduction in potentially avoidable hospitalizations in participating facilities. "These findings provide persuasive evidence of the initiative's effectiveness in reducing hospital inpatient admissions, ED visits, and hospitalization-related Medicare expenditures," the report said.