Unnecessary and Harmful Tests

Internationally, there is a groundswell of activity seeking to identify and reduce the use of health care interventions that deliver marginal benefit, be it through overuse, misuse or waste. A special ABC Four Corners investigation reveals many of the treatments and tests we get are unnecessary, sometimes harmful and needlessly expensive, costing the health system billions of dollars every year.
Figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show Australia spends just under $155 billion on health each year, and it is estimated that one-third of that amount — about $46 billion — is being squandered. This is total spending by federal and state governments, private health insurance and in hard cash from patients in gap fees.

"Adam Elshaug, Associate Professor of Healthcare Policy at Sydney University, is an authority on what is called low-value care and has identified at least 150 unsafe, inappropriate or ineffective medical services that receive Medicare and health insurance rebates." You can read more on this story by Norman Swan and Claudine Ryan from ABC Radio.

Click here to read the full ABC story. You can also read the recent article in the Medical Journal of Australia on the same topic: 

Adam G Elshaug, Amber M Watt, Linda Mundy and Cameron D Willis. (2015), Over 150 potentially low-value health care practices: an Australian study. Med J Aust, 197(10), 556-560.