The Newhouse News Service has a terrific story about Medicare requiring seniors who receive a new government-funded "Welcome to Medicare" exam to have electrocardiogram (EKG) tests that some say are a waste of time and money.
Dr. Gil Welch of Dartmouth says, "It's a great test for someone who had chest pain or an irregular heartbeat." But would he give it to someone age 70 and apparently healthy? "Absolutely not."
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says the evidence is incomplete to endorse EKGs for those at some risk, including seniors. The task force wrote, "Harms from false positive tests are likely to occur."
But the article explains that the feds now mandate the test for seniors in taking the Welcome to Medicare exam, and physicians won't be reimbursed for doing anything if they don't include the EKG.
Now that's evidence-based medicine! How this got into the Medicare reform bill is not clear.
Posted by schwitz at February 16, 2005 11:02 AM