The Development, Validation, and Application of a Claims-based Metric of Low Value Prescribing in Older Adults
PI: Thomas R. Radomski, MD, MS
Funding Source: NIH/NIA
August 2019 - June 2024
The overuse of low-value health services (i.e., a health service whose immediate or downstream costs or harms exceed its benefits) is a major driver of wasteful healthcare spending in the United States. While the use of low-value tests and procedures in older adults has been well-described, low-value prescribing has not been systematically studied, as no validated metric exists to detect such prescribing. The goals of this project are 1) To identify and define key low-value prescribing practices from the perspective of diverse stakeholders to incorporate in the low- value prescribing metric; 2) To validate the components of the low-value prescribing metric for use in administrative data; 3) To determine the patient, provider, and geographic factors associated with low-value prescribing.