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by slsii 2880 days ago
It's not entirely true that extra tests are only an issue because they reveal untreated disease that insurers would rather not pay for.

There are non-trivial false positive rates for many diagnostics that can and do lead to unnecessary follow-up tests, procedures, and emotional distress.

For example, "About half of the women getting annual mammograms over a 10-year period will have a false-positive finding." [0]

The US Task Force for Preventative Services works to clarify when diagnostics are appropriate given rates of false positives and false negatives for many different preventative services. And there are many groups that work to establish and record evidence-based guidelines for escalations of care outside of preventative care as well. Intermountain is one example.

[0] https://www.cancer.org/cancer/breast-cancer/screening-tests-...