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Treatments that don’t help patients, and may even harm them, are difficult to eliminate because they can be big sources of revenue.

The U.S. spends huge amounts of money on health care that does little or nothing to help patients, and may even harm them. Those treatments and medical tests raise costs, lead to health complications, and interfere with more appropriate care. The structure of the U.S. health system, which rewards doctors for providing more care rather than the right care, has made it difficult to stop such waste.

The U.S. spends huge amounts of money on health care that does little or nothing to help patients, and may even harm them.

Ordering inappropriate cardiac imaging can set off a cascade of unnecessary tests, referrals, and treatment.

Objective To characterize racial differences in receipt of low value care (services that provide little to no benefit yet have potential for harm) among older Medicare beneficiaries overall and within health systems in the United States. Design Retrospective cohort study Setting 100% Medicare fee-for-service administrative data (2016–18). Participants Black and White Medicare patients aged 65 or older as of 2016 and attributed to 595 health systems in the United States. Main outcome measures Receipt of 40 low value services among Black and White patients, with and without adjustment for pati...