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Medicare Cost-Saving Moves Can Backfire
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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 With little decline in the number of hospital-based surgeries, Medicare expenditures, in 2005 dollars, jumped 50 percent from the period prior to the reimbursement change to the latter period.
The authors say other factors, such as a shift in referral patterns and better equipment and training, could have played into the surge in office-based volume, but they admit that the trend is "disturbing" because it may reflect overuse of office-based endoscopic surgery.
But in an accompanying editorial, Dr. David F. Penson, an assistant professor of urologic surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., said further research is needed to determine whether additional bladder biopsies were clinically indicated and appropriate.
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"In the end, access to high-quality cancer care may end up costing more, but it probably will be well worth it from a public health perspective," he wrote.
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more on bladder cancer.
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Copyright © 2010 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Last updated 2/9/2010
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SOURCES: Samir S. Taneja, M.D., director, division of urologic oncology, New York University (NYU) Langone Medical Center, New York City; Micah L. Hemani, M.D., physician, urology, NYU Langone Medical Center; New York City; Robert A. Berenson, M.D., institute fellow, Urban Institute, and member, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, Washington, D.C.; Feb. 8, 2010, Cancer, online
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