Medicare patients often receive repeat testings

In a new study, up to half – or more – of older adults on Medicare
who had a heart, lung, stomach or bladder test had the same procedure repeated
within three years. Those tests typically aren't supposed to be routinely
repeated, researchers said. For some of them, such as echocardiography and
stress tests for heart function, there are recommendations specifically against
routine testing.

"What we were struck by is just how commonly these tests are being
repeated," said Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, lead author of the report from the
Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in Hanover, New
Hampshire. "Either these patients continually develop new problems or
there are doctors who routinely repeat tests."

Source/more: Reuters