
The Mammography Debate Resurfaces-This Time it's Medicare Spending
Despite increased spending, the breast cancer detection rate and stage did not change, according to a new JNCI study.
Medicare's mammography costs increased by almost 50% over a 7-year period while the breast cancer detection rate and stage at diagnosis did not change, a 270,000-patient study showed.
Annual Medicare spending rose from $666 million during 2001 to 2002, to $962 million in 2008 to 2009, according to
The rise in cost coincided with widespread transition from plain-film to more expensive digital mammography, they reported online in the
"I view this as important preliminary data suggesting there has been no improvement whatsoever [in detection rates]," Gross told MedPage Today. "As far as why there was no improvement, it's either because the new technology was not more effective or maybe we just need longer follow-up time, and only time will tell."
Read the original report here:
Source: medpageToday
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