Liquid gold: Urine testing makes millions for some companies. Guess who’s paying for it?

Urine testing is big business, and we’re all paying for it because Medicare is paying for it. In fact, the program is writing multi million-dollar checks to the companies that perform the lab tests. And it’s a problem because, as Kaiser Health News (KHN) puts it, “there are virtually no national standards regarding who gets tested, for which drugs and how often.”

KHN worked with researchers at the Mayo Clinic to understand how big the urine testing business really is. After reviewing billing data from Medicare and private insurance companies nationwide, they found that spending on urine screens and related tests quadrupled from 2011 to 2014 to about $8.5 billion a year!

Their research revealed a number of other concerns:

• Over-testing: While urine tests are routinely done to check for drug use, many samples are tested for a wide range of drugs – some that present minimal danger of abuse. Check out this KHN VIDEO on “The $1,845 Urine Test” to learn more.
• It’s lucrative: Some doctors make more on testing patients than treating them. Jason Mehta, an assistant U.S. attorney in Jacksonville, Fla., says, “It’s troubling to see providers test everyone for every class of drugs every time they come in.”
• There’s limited consensus: Lawmakers, medical associations, federal agencies and state boards can’t find common ground on how to set standards for testing. There are legal issues. There’s the idea that doctors should be the only people deciding how much testing is the right amount of testing.

What do you think?

Should the federal government set stricter standards on who can test and how often? Have you experienced unnecessary testing? Share your story.