High Medicare Spending on Prostate Cancer Screenings, But Little Benefit For Older Men

Prostate cancer screening has little benefit for men aged 75 and older, yet over three years, the Medicare fee-for-service program spent $447 million annually on PSA-based screenings — one-third of which was for men in the over 75 age group, according to study by researchers at the Yale Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy, and Effectiveness Research (COPPER) Center. Published in the Oct. 4 issue of the journal Cancer, the study also found considerable geographic variation in the cost of prostate cancer screening. Many prostate cancers are slow-growing and unlikely to become problematic. Widespread screening with a serum-based PSA test may result…

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