"Assessing the Reliability of Medicare-Covered Alzheimer's Blood Tests"

Medicare now routinely pays for amyloid-PET scans to help diagnose early-stage Alzheimer's and determine eligibility for new drugs, but experts question the reliability of these scans in accurately identifying the disease and measuring drug benefits. The costs of the scans and new drugs raise concerns about spending on unreliable testing and potentially ineffective treatments. Alternative diagnostic methods are being explored, but challenges remain in accurately diagnosing Alzheimer's. The use of amyloid-PET scans as a proxy for Alzheimer's and the modest benefits of new drugs raise further questions about their effectiveness.