Medicare Blow to Virtual Colonoscopies

Medicare has tentatively decided not to pay for virtual colonoscopies, dealing a setback to a technique that some medical experts recommend as a more tolerable alternative to conventional colonoscopy in screening for colon cancer. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a decision posted on its Web site that there was “insufficient evidence” to conclude that virtual colonoscopy “improves outcomes in Medicare beneficiaries.

Virtual colonoscopy, formally known as CT colonography, uses noninvasive CT scans, which depend on X-rays to get images of the inside of the colon for abnormal growths called polyps. Supporters of CT scans denounced the decision. “It seems to defy logic,” said Dr. Perry J. Pickhardt, associate professor of radiology at the University of Wisconsin, who has consulted for some makers of software used to analyze the CT scans. Dr. Pickhardt said the virtual colonoscopy was “better, safer, faster, cheaper” than conventional colonoscopy. Dr. Durado Brooks, director for colorectal and prostate cancer at the American Cancer Society, said the decision would reduce the choices available. “There are certainly some patients who may opt not to be screened because they don’t want to have a colonoscopy,” Dr. Brooks said.

Bonnie - after recent research has shown virtuals to be just as effective, this potential ruling is unconscionable.