Radiology tests outpaced other cost increases for Medicare beneficiaries with cancer

Solidifying what many of us already realized, researchers have now published data suggesting the use of radiology tests from 1999 to 2006 have outpaced the other cost increases for Medicare beneficiaries with cancer. The largest radiology costs were incurred by patients with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and lung cancer. (Researchers also looked at breast cancer, colorectal cancer, leukemia and prostate cancer).

I can't say this is surprising — during the seven year period, imaging has become much more clinically useful in both staging and in determining response to treatment. Although most of the tests were CTs and MRIs, during that time period, PET scans also assumed a much more prominent (and expensive) role in staging. A fair number of those additional tests may have shown results which avoided additional procedures or surgery — resulting in individual cost (and risk) savings.

I'm not sure that this increase is necessarily a bad thing, unless you account for the downstream effects of imaging (this would be nearly impossible to garner from Medicare claims data, since you can't know what medical test or procedure was recommended not to be done, for example). You also cannot determine the results of the imaging tests — for example, does the additional PET scan contribute any more information to the CT scan that was already conducted? If so, most clinicians would say it was useful to do that test.