News & Record, By KATHLEEN CODY JAN. 19, 2020
In the United States, half of all women and one-quarter of all men over the age of 50 eventually develop osteoporosis and break a bone. These fractures can debilitate and even kill older Americans. About one in three hip-fracture victims dies within a year.
Doctors could prevent many of these tragic deaths by screening older Americans for osteoporosis. Unfortunately, the federal government is standing in their way.
In recent years, Medicare has cut reimbursements for the most effective osteoporosis screening test so drastically that many physicians can’t afford to offer it. As a result, thousands of people in North Carolina and nationwide have sustained painful, even deadly, osteoporotic fractures.
In the United States, half of all women and one-quarter of all men over the age of 50 eventually develop osteoporosis and break a bone. These fractures can debilitate and even kill older Americans. About one in three hip-fracture victims dies within a year.
Doctors could prevent many of these tragic deaths by screening older Americans for osteoporosis. Unfortunately, the federal government is standing in their way.
In recent years, Medicare has cut reimbursements for the most effective osteoporosis screening test so drastically that many physicians can’t afford to offer it. As a result, thousands of people in North Carolina and nationwide have sustained painful, even deadly, osteoporotic fractures.
That’s why medical professionals recommend that all women over 65, as well as women under 65 with certain risk factors, receive a bone-density test called dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, or DXA. Medicare beneficiaries who receive DXA tests suffer 35% fewer hip fractures and break other bones 22% less frequently than those who do not get the test.
Since 2006, Medicare’s reimbursement rates for DXA scans have declined by more than 70%. Consequently, many doctors can no longer afford to offer the tests.
The effect on North Carolina has been devastating. Medicare’s penny-pinching has prevented about 135,000 women from receiving the DXA scan since 2008. These women have suffered almost 1,700 additional hip fractures — and 370 additional hip fracture-related deaths — per year. Hip fracture rates, which had been declining for more than 20 years, began to climb again in 2013.
Fortunately, these trends are reversible. On the Senate’s docket is a bill called the Increasing Access to Osteoporosis Testing for Medicare Beneficiaries Act, which would raise reimbursement rates for DXA scans. The House is considering similar legislation. Both bills have strong bipartisan support and would do wonders to fight osteoporosis.
Providing DXA screening to more seniors could prevent at least 3.7 million fractures in the United States over the next two decades, according to a recent study in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research Plus. The same study found that raising screening and treatment rates in women 65 and older could reduce the societal costs of osteoporosis by close to $55 billion.
Osteoporosis cripples and kills tens of thousands of Americans each year. But it doesn’t have to. By making it easier for doctors to perform crucial DXA scans, Congress can help keep seniors strong and healthy.