By Andrew M. Seaman
NEW YORK |
Tue Jan 8, 2013 2:27pm EST
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Screening women for breast cancer costs a U.S. Medicare module $1 billion each year – about as many as it spends on treatment, according to a new study.
“It’s famous that we’re spending over $1 billion on treating cancer, though we were astounded to find that we’re also spending over $1 billion for screening,” pronounced Dr. Cary Gross, a study’s lead author from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Using a database of Medicare claims between 2006 to 2007, Gross and colleagues tracked about 137,000 women, who did not have breast cancer and who were over 66 years old, to see how many they spent on screening and initial diagnosis for breast cancer.
Currently, a U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), that issues screening recommendations and other guidelines, recommends women between 50 and 74 years aged get a mammogram each other year.
The USPSTF says there is not adequate justification to contend either women over 74 should be screened, though a American Cancer Society suggests women 40 years aged and comparison get mammograms each year that they’re in good health.
Medicare, that provides health word to a aged and disabled, spent $523 billion in 2010. During a time studied, 2006-2007, Medicare spent $1.36 billion on breast cancer treatments and $1.08 billion on screening. About $410 million of that was spent on screening women who were over 74.
“We feel this underscores a significance of bargain how we’re profitable for breast cancer screening, and bargain what is a best proceed for screening comparison women for breast cancer,” pronounced Gross.
REGIONAL VARIATIONS
The researchers, who published their explanation in JAMA Internal Medicine, afterwards pennyless adult a nation into regions to see if those areas that spent a many on screening finished adult carrying improved outcomes.
They found a cost of breast cancer screening sundry by region, from $42 per studious to $107.
That variation, they write, was driven by new and costly screening methods, that aren’t always shown to be improved than their comparison counterparts.
In a explanation concomitant a new study, Dr. Jeanne Mandelblatt, from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and colleagues write that many doctors are regulating digital mammography, notwithstanding any justification that it’s improved than a less-expensive film mammography for Medicare-age women.
“For me, this is unequivocally a call for ramping adult the investigate efforts of how we shade comparison women for breast cancer and either it’s effective,” pronounced Gross.
SOURCE: bit.ly/UTMBXX and bit.ly/UU6BK7 JAMA Internal Medicine, online Jan 7, 2013.
Source: Health Medicine Network