thorntoncaruso: Laws don't curb pricey prostate cancer treatments

Monday, November 26, 2012

Laws don't curb pricey prostate cancer treatments | TribLIVE

By Reuters

Published: Sunday, November 25, 2012, 6:10?p.m.
Updated 13 hours ago

NEW YORK ? Laws meant to prevent the overuse of expensive health care services don?t stop doctors from using pricey prostate cancer treatments, two new studies show.

Researchers found doctors used robots and special radiation to treat prostate cancer regardless of whether their area had laws requiring government approval before money is spent on health care facilities and new equipment.

?Certificate of need laws were designed to align public need with use of different services,? said Dr. Bruce Jacobs, a lead author of one of the studies from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

The federal government required states to implement the laws in the 1970s and early 1980s but stopped a few decades ago. Still, some states continue to use the laws in an effort to control costs.

In each study, the researchers looked at treatments for prostate cancer, which is the most common cancer in American men.

In Jacobs? study, the researchers looked at whether states with strict laws e_SEmD those that require approval for even low-cost equipment e_SEmD used robotic surgery to remove fewer prostates than states with less strict or no laws.

Overall, in the new study, the use of robotic surgery to remove prostates in Medicare patients increased regardless of whether there were strict, less strict or no laws in place. Also, the chance a surgeon used robots had nothing to do with the laws.

A second study by other researchers looked at whether the laws limited the use of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) or slowed the growth of health care costs related to prostate cancer.

Researchers found that IMRT use increased from about 2 percent of all prostate cancer treatments in 2002 to almost half in 2009 in areas with the laws.

In areas without the laws, IMRT use increased from about 11 percent of all prostate cancer treatments to about 42 percent during the same time span.

The laws didn?t seem to help control prostate cancer treatment costs when the researchers compared the price to treat one person in states with laws compared with the price in states without laws.