{"id":45608,"date":"2014-10-14T15:02:48","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T19:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/?post_type=news&#038;p=45608"},"modified":"2014-10-20T07:05:52","modified_gmt":"2014-10-20T11:05:52","slug":"inappropriate-heart-stress-tests-may-cost-half-a-billion-dollars-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/2014\/10\/14\/inappropriate-heart-stress-tests-may-cost-half-a-billion-dollars-a-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Inappropriate Cardiac Stress Tests May Cost Half a Billion Dollars a Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Inappropriate cardiac stress tests may cost the U.S. healthcare system as much as half a billion dollars each year, according to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/annals.org\/article.aspx?articleid=1911118\">a new study published in the <em>Annals of Internal Medicine<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Joseph Ladapo\u00a0and colleagues set out to analyze long-term trends in the use of cardiac stress testing in the U.S. Using data from national surveys, they found that from\u00a0the years 1993-1995 to 2008-2010, the use of cardiac stress tests more than doubled, from 1.6 million \u00a0to 3.8 million\u00a0procedures each year. This represented an increase in the rate of procedures from 28 to 45 per 10,000 visits to the doctor.<\/p>\n<p>The overall growth in these tests was largely explained by changes in the patient population. But the growth in cardiac stress tests with imaging &#8212; far more expensive than a simple treadmill test &#8212; was not explained by these changes. Use of these imaging tests &#8212; most often a nuclear stress test, which involves exposure to radiation &#8212; \u00a0have exploded in popularity and are far more expensive than the much simpler treadmill test.<\/p>\n<p>The investigators calculated that from 2005-2010, 30% of imaging stress tests were performed without an appropriate reason, and these tests cost $494 million annually. The radiation received by patients during these inappropriate procedures could lead to 491 patients developing cancer later in life. By contrast, inappropriate stress testing\u00a0<em>without<\/em>\u00a0imaging cost only $7.7 million each year.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, there has been a slight decrease in the use of these tests as medical guidelines have stated emphatically that these procedures are inappropriate in patients without chest pain or other significant symptoms.<\/p>\n<p>The cost of inappropriate testing &#8220;reduces society\u2019s ability to provide other health services or expand access to care for uninsured and underserved populations.&#8221; the authors write. &#8220;Our results therefore support and further refine concerns voiced by professional societies and insurers about use.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: Comments on this news story are closed, but please join the discussion about this topic over at <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/voices\/are-we-conducting-too-many-cardiac-stress-tests-with-imaging\/\">Harlan Krumholz\u2019s interview with Joseph Ladapo<\/a>, lead author of this study.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inappropriate cardiac stress tests may cost the U.S. healthcare system as much as half a billion dollars each year, according to\u00a0a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Joseph Ladapo\u00a0and colleagues set out to analyze long-term trends in the use of cardiac stress testing in the U.S. Using data from national surveys, they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1,7],"tags":[2212,227,497,2396],"class_list":["post-45608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cardiac-imaging","category-general","category-prevention","tag-myocardial-perfusion-imaging","tag-stress-echocardiography","tag-stress-tests","tag-treadmill-tests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}