"Low-Value" Medicare Procedures

 The article raises very good questions, given that Medicare will go bankrupt in 6 years or so.

In 1996, a task force of independent healthcare experts recommended that doctors stop giving urine tests to people who did not show symptoms of a urinary tract infection. The test has "no benefit," since even a positive result for elevated bacteria levels does not mean the patient is unhealthy, research shows.

The recommendation, like many others, was essentially ignored. Today the government spends about $1 billion annually for almost 15% of seniors on Medicare to get the test.

There are several dozen and possibly hundreds of such "low-value care" treatments – medical practices that have little or no clinical benefit, or which have a risk that outweighs their potential benefit, according to medical literature. They include Vitamin D blood tests and MRIs for mild lower-back pain. In all, more than one-third of Medicare beneficiaries receive a low-value intervention every year, costing taxpayers several billion dollars....

We would suggest that forcing Medicare beneficiaries to visit the doc annually is also a large waste of time and money.