Tag: MRI research

A new Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute study of nearly 800,000 men found that between 2011 and 2017 black patients were 24% less likely than white patients to have a prostate MRI after receiving an elevated (prostate-specific antigen) PSA score. For patients with an elevated PSA, use of prostate MRI prior to prostate biopsy has increased substantially in recent years as MRI can improve identification of clinically significant prostate cancer and obviate the need for biopsy, thus decreasing overdiagnosis of these cases. This JAMA Network Open study was based on 794,809 men, age 40 or older, with a PSA test using claims data from the Optum Clinformatics Data Mart Database. Of these men, 51,500 had an PSA score >4ng/mL. The study found that patients with Medicare compared to commercial insurance were less likely to have a prostate MRI as were patients with HMO insurance plans compared to other plan types.