Scans Don't Always Give Full Picture
Tuesday December 9, 2008
The New York Times recently featured an article about the tenuous link between pain and abnormalities found on medical scans like MRIs and CTs. A study shows that in many cases, these scans do not actually indicate the source of the patient's problem. Sometimes pain is caused by something other than the abnormality, or patients with abnormalities feel absolutely fine. This has implications for health insurance, because insurers are less likely to cover expensive tests if they aren't convinced of their medical necessity. It may be more difficult to obtain medical scans in the future because of this.
Comments
We can only hope that our new president will follow through on his promises of healthcare reform and help us save some money. As a webmaster for a group healthcare and financial products broker in Dade and Broward counties in South Florida, I see just how much the costs of care have risen here due to the heavy population of retirees and their needs for prescription drugs and just plain general health pictures. I am approaching retirement myself and have no desire to have to spend my hard earned annuities or IRA and 401K that I have saved as part of my retirement planning on healthcare insurance! Car pooling can help save a little, but healthcare reform would save me a whole lot more.
Jean Drogus