Americans are exposed to seven times more radiation from diagnostic scans than they were in 1980. Experts are saying that doctors are overusing the tests for profit and raising health risks for patients.
The findings add to already mounting evidence that doctors are ordering too many diagnostic tests, driving up the cost of health care in the United States and potentially harming patients.
While diagnostic scans can give doctors valuable information, but some fear that too much radiation exposure may cause cancer, especially in younger people.
However, imaging technology has created a financial incentive for some doctors to cash in by referring patients to get imaging tests on equipment in their own practices.
A study by the Government Accountability Office in July found Medicare spending on medical imaging doubled to about $14 billion a year between 2000 and 2006, driven largely by increases in high-tech imaging.
In November, a 10-year study by a team at the University of California, San Francisco, found use of computed tomography or CT scans, an advanced type of X-ray, doubled among patients in a large managed care plan between 1997 and 2006.
Source: Reuters, 3 March 2009
Chapter: Health :: 26 March 2009
