The research, published April 14 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, looked at National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey data across seven preventive services given a “D” rating by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent HHS panel. A “D” rating means the service likely has no health benefits and could even harm patients.
The seven services studied, which include heart disease screening for low-risk adults and cancer screenings for adults over a certain age, were performed 31 million times annually during the study period, which ran from 2007 to 2016. Added up, all those services cost $478 million a year.
“Medicare could save nearly $500 million per year and protect patients against potential harm by no longer providing reimbursements for these services,” the authors concluded, according to an April 28 news release.
