Low-Cost High-Volume Health Services Contribute The Most To Unnecessary Health Spending
Author: John N. Mafi, Kyle Russell, Beth A. Bortz, Marcos Dachary, William A. Hazel, A. Mark Fendrick
An analysis of data for 2014 about forty-four low-value health services in the Virginia All Payer Claims Database revealed more than $586 million in unnecessary costs. Among these low-value services, those that were low and very low cost ($538 or less per service) were delivered far more frequently than services that were high and very high cost ($539 or more). The combined costs of the former group were nearly twice those of the latter (65 percent versus 35 percent).
