Efforts to cut unnecessary blood testing bring major decreases in health care spending

Two relatively simple tactics have been used to significantly reduce the number of unnecessary blood tests to assess symptoms of heart attack and chest pain and to achieve a large decrease in patient charges, researchers report. The team provided information and education to physicians about proven testing guidelines and made changes to the computerized provider order entry system at a medical center. The guidelines call for more limited use of blood tests for so-called cardiac biomarkers. These...