Things Medicare Won't Tell You from Yahoo News

1. "We fork over millions for unproven procedures."

Medicare spends millions of dollars each year on treatments that many medical experts deem unnecessary. One example: Digital mammograms. These are often more expensive than traditional mammograms but not necessarily better for older women. A five-year clinical trial conducted by the National Cancer Institute found that digital mammograms were no more effective in finding cancers in women 50 and older than traditional mammograms. But the number of digital mammograms that Medicare paid for has risen from 426,000 in 2003 to nearly 6 million in 2008 -- a jump that increased the cost of breast cancer screening by more than $350 million, according to an analysis by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative news organization.

Medicare also often pays significantly more for liquid-based cytology, a screen for cervical cancer, than it does for routine pap smears, even though a large 2009 study found that the expensive test is no more effective than the traditional procedure when it comes to detecting cancer. Using the newer, more expnsive test costs Medicare an extra $90 million since 2003, according to The Center for Public Integrity. Another point of contention is that Medicare pays for screening colonoscopies for people over 75 despite the fact that the United States Preventative Task Force "recommends against routine screening for colorectal cancer in adults age 76 to 85 years."

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