The answer is ‘no.’ For instance, consider the case where breast cancer screening is subsidized, but you are uninsured an breast cancer treatment is unaffordable. What is the value of breast cancer screening? It is probably pretty low since if you find out you have breast cancer, there is not much you can do about [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Prevention' Category
Should all individuals be screened for Hepatitis C?
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is largely curable: “In clinical trials, antiviral therapy with pegylated interferon and ribavirin (PEG-IFNR) has resulted in a sustained viral response (SVR) (that is, cure) of HCV infection in 46% of patients infected with genotype 1 (which infects 70% and 90% of chronically infected white and African American persons in [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Do I need an Annual Wellness Visit?
The Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Health Reform, Obamacare) mandates that Medicare provide an annual wellness visit (AWV) to all beneficiaries free of charge. Today, I answer some questions related to CMS’s implementation of the mandated annual wellness visit requirement. What is included in an annual wellness visit? The AWV includes “the establishment of, or update [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Sigmoidoscopy: The colonoscopy’s cheaper, equally effective predecessor
Physicians claims that colonoscopies are the gold standard of preventive medicine. In 2008 the American Cancer Society deemed the colonoscopy as the preferred test and the health reform law (PPACA) will compel insurance companies to cover colonoscopies. But does the sigmoidoscopy–the colonoscopy’s predecessor–offer less expensive, less invasive, equally effective preventive care? “[The sigmoidoscopy] looks at [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Prevention and Cost
More evidence that although preventive may improve patient health, it may also increase costs. (See also my post from 12 Feb 2008). Afschin Gandjour (2009) “Aging diseases – do they prevent preventive health care from saving costs?” Health Economics, v18(3): 355-362.
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