U.S is Spending $4 billion Annually Resulting from False Positive Mammograms and Unnecessary Treatments

According to a paper published in Health Affairs by Ong and Mendel the U.S. spends $4 billion a year on unnecessary medical costs due to mammograms that generate false alarms, and on treatment of certain breast tumors unlikely to cause problems.

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They found that costs due to false-positive mammograms and breast cancer over diagnoses among women ages 40–59, based on expenditure data from a major US health care insurance plan for 702,154 women in the years 2011–13.

The average expenditures for each false-positive mammogram, invasive breast cancer, and ductal carcinoma in situ in the twelve months following diagnosis were $852, $51,837 and $12,369, respectively. This translates to a national cost of $4 billion each year.

The cumulative cost is as follows: $2.8 billion resulting from false-positive mammograms and another $1.2 billion attributed to treatment of tumors that grow slowly or not at all, and are unlikely to develop into life-threatening disease during a woman’s lifetime.

Screening has the potential to save lives. However, the economic impact of false-positive mammography results and breast cancer over diagnoses must be considered in the debate about the appropriate populations for screening.