Confirmed: Annual check-ups are pretty much useless
“General health checks do not improve important outcomes and are unlikely to ever do so based on the pooled results of this meta-analysis spanning decades of experience,” write authors Allan Prochazka and Tanner Caverly. ”There remains a belief in the value of general health checks despite the accumulating evidence. This belief is buoyed by screening advocacy groups and insurance coverage, and they have ramifications for patient welfare and health care costs.”
Prochazka and Caverly are the first to admit that their findings aren’t exactly groundbreaking: Due to the lack of benefits, Canadian guidelines have recommended against general check-ups since 1979. The rationale there is that these visits can do more harm to the patient – and the larger health care system – then good.
Blowback
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Puts a lot of new boats on the water every summer.
BL@KBIRD on January 17, 2013 at 8:35 PM
Not if you enjoy having someone stick a finger up your ass.
Mark1971 on January 17, 2013 at 8:38 PM
So that’s how Obama will bend the cost curve down.
Night Owl on January 17, 2013 at 8:39 PM
When the government gets involved, you’ll find that the things that they demanded everyone get, which were making the system slow and expensive, are suddenly not necessary.
Funny how that works.
lorien1973 on January 17, 2013 at 8:40 PM
Time to start convincing people that they don’t need to see their doctor so often… helps keep costs down.
Next report to be released: Early detection of cancer isn’t all that its cracked-up to be.
Hill60 on January 17, 2013 at 8:43 PM
This is exactly what’s going on.
John the Libertarian on January 17, 2013 at 8:43 PM
Under Obamacare, regular checkups are essential. How else is the government going to find out if you have guns or not?
malclave on January 17, 2013 at 8:45 PM
Those twice a year cleanings? A waste of time and money.
Night Owl on January 17, 2013 at 8:46 PM
And of course, by the time the non-hypocondriacs go in with a problem, the same government that said that regular checks to catch that problem early will say that it is too late and costly to effectively treat that problem.
Steve Eggleston on January 17, 2013 at 8:46 PM
What’s a check up now? Blood pressure, weight, questions about your sanity and choice of caliber?
CorporatePiggy on January 17, 2013 at 8:47 PM
but, but, but primary doctors (lol a dying breed) need to pay off their student loans which are outrageously high because of the government subsidized student loans.
Socmodfiscon on January 17, 2013 at 8:57 PM
Salt intake, how much fat in your diet, seat belts, gun in home, baby always in her car seat… OMG you give your baby WHOLE MILK? What kind of monster are you
astonerii on January 17, 2013 at 9:04 PM
Don’t mind the revision and extension of my previous remarks.
Steve Eggleston on January 17, 2013 at 9:08 PM
More to the point: early detection of health problems does absolutely nothing whatsoever to benefit the government.
To paraphrase the inventor of Obamacare (or, as it was called back then, “Stalincare”): All problems are caused by patients. Get rid of the patient, and you get rid of the problem.
logis on January 17, 2013 at 10:19 PM