U.S. Must Cut Spending on Medical Technology, Harvard Study Says

U.S. policy makers wrestling with the deficit should focus on reducing the number of angioplasties and other medical procedures that don’t always deliver clinical benefits, two Harvard University economists said.

The overuse of expensive medical interventions is a prime culprit behind rising U.S. health-care spending that’s encouraged by private health plans and Medicare, Kathleen Baicker and Amitabh Chandra wrote in a paper presented at a Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City symposium today. The two professors spoke at a conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.