The Challenge of Cutting Unnecessary Medical Care

Despite efforts to reduce unnecessary medical care, the U.S. healthcare system continues to spend significant amounts of money on treatments and tests that provide little benefit and may even harm patients. In Colorado alone, $134 million was spent on low-value care last year, including prescriptions for opiates, multiple antipsychotics, and screenings for vitamin D deficiency. The structure of the healthcare system, which rewards doctors for providing more care rather than the right care, makes it difficult to address this issue. Even in places where financial incentives for additional testing have been eliminated, such as Los Angeles County, low-value care remains a problem.