Annual physical exams aren’t always necessary, reports a groundbreaking study that concludes how preventive care can be found outside the annual visit the doctor’s office. Should you reconsider the traditional check-up?
Digital Journal — The traditional yearly physical may not be worth the time and money, says a study based out of the University of Pittsburgh. The study found that preventive tests and services can be accessed through other visits to the doctor, not just at the annual physical. The cost of providing annual health exams and gynecological exams cost Americans $7.8 billion between January 2002 and December 2004, the study reported.
Researcher Ateev Mehrotra, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, told CBS News:
“The vast majority of people think they are being good patients if they go in to see their doctor every year. Most doctors actually believe the same thing…It is important to understand what these exams accomplish, and that there are other ways to accomplish the same thing that might be more efficient and cost-effective.”
Mehrotra added that 21 per cent of the U.S. population underwent a yearly physical. If every person in the U.S. got a physical, as recommended by physicians, the health care system would have to provide up to 145 million additional visits annually.
As well, these preventive exams contain services that are often unnecessary. More than a third of the annual physicals include blood cell counts or urinalysis, which don’t improve patient when performed routinely, the study found. These two services cost $192 a million a year.
The researchers discovered that 80 per cent of preventive care happened during occasions other than annual exams, and most of the patients were seen by a physician at least once during the same year for some specific complaint.
Mehrotra explained:
This supports the idea advocated by some that we should use other visits as an opportunity to deliver preventive care.
Although the study concludes that many physicals are not warranted, Mehrotra is quick to explain that the health care system shouldn’t do away with annual check-ups entirely. Rather, he suggests that people communicate with their doctors about the pros and cons.
Patients should realize there is a lot of controversy about the value of physicals and they should have a conversation with their doctor about it.
Some members of the medical community support the study’s claims. HealthPartners, a Minneapolis-based health plan that also delivers care to 400,000 members, told USA Today:
You don’t need to go see your doctor every year just to go see your doctor.
I second that motion. With my own annual physical looming, the study provides food for thought when it comes to checking in with the family doctor every year. Shouldn’t we visit the doc when we have problems? Is every service in a physical absolutely necessary? What we often accept without question must now be critically dissected to the core. No longer should the American health care system, already fractured beyond belief, continue an expensive routine of encouraging doctor visits that could be avoided.
Going for a physical makes intuitive sense. We always want to know how high our cholesterol is, if we have cancerous tumors anywhere, if our weight has fluctuated. But it’s about time that health care system around the world — not just in the U.S. — began to evaluate how imperative these annual physicals are to the average patient. Undoubtedly, this is one health issue where we should seek a second opinion.
