Primary Care Physicians ‘Generally’ Good Gatekeepers for Low-Value Services, Study Finds

HealthLeaders Media January 19, 2021
Christopher Cheney

The researchers reviewed utilization of low-value services such as imaging for non-specific back pain and arthroscopic surgery for knee osteoarthritis.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

– For most PCPs, the medical services they performed or ordered accounted for less than 9% of their patients’ low-value spending, which represented less than 0.3% of their total Medicare Part B spending.

– For most PCPs, referrals accounted for less than 16% of their patients’ low-value spending, which represented less than 0.5% of their total Medicare Part B spending.

Most primary care physicians are effective at limiting the ordering of low-value medical services, a new research article says.

Earlier research found that annual spending on low-value medical services in U.S. healthcare ranges from $75 billion to $100...

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