An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back

by Elisabeth Rosenthal

Since it was a complicated new therapy with unpredictable finances that few patients would need, Medicare reimbursed generously. In short order proton beam therapy was being used on a far wider range of tumors than had ever been intended, despite little evidence that it was superior to cheaper options. Every hospital wanted one and new machines came with billing tips as well as elaborate calculations about how long it would take to recoup the investment. (See Rule 1: More treatment is always better. Default to the most expensive option.) The National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society tried unsuccessfully to tame the frenzy with science, to no avail, even though one study of thirty thousand patients with prostate cancer found that “proton beam therapy provided no long term benefit over traditional radiation therapy, despite far higher costs,” according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.