Report: 40 Percent Of Medicare Spending On Tests Is ‘Medically Unnecessary’

In case you weren’t convinced that the government is spending millions of dollars on health care that does nothing to improve outcomes, this stat may change your mind: an investigation conducted by iWatch finds that “40 percent of Medicare spending on common preventive screenings [is] regarded as medically unnecessary.” Beneficiaries are receiving these tests “more frequently than medically recommended or at times when they cannot gain any proven medical benefit, extracting an enormous financial toll on the nation’s health care system.” This is because “doctors disregard scientific guidelines out of ignorance, fear of malpractice suits or for financial gain, as patients inundated by medical advertising clamor for extra tests.” The Affordable Care Act tries to tackle this waste by changing the incentives that lead to unnecessary care, funding tort reform demonstration projects, and investing in comparative effectiveness research to weed out ineffective treatments.