A report from the IG of the Department of Health and Human Services says that Medicare overpays for lab tests, as compared to Medicaid or private insurers. The test for TSH levels was the single most overpaid according to the report. In 2011 Medicare paid $348 million to labs for this test, $140 million more than necessary. It doesn’t say how much the average test cost, but it surprises me that anything to do with thyroid was done this widely. The next 3 most overpaid tests were for blood count, metabolic panel and lipid panel. The list price for my TSH test, performed at a hospital lab, is $82.00. Although they discount it because I am self insured. That’s 4,200,000 TSH tests to equal $348 million. That’s a lot!
