In the 1966 sci-fi film “Fantastic Voyage,” scientists were shrunk to microscopic size to be injected into the president’s body to save his life. Once inside, the tiny explorers got an unmatched view of the human body.
These days, full-body scanning purports to do the same thing, only from the outside looking in. Ads touting the diagnostic procedure are common in local newspapers and magazines, as well as radio and TV stations. The pitch: detect potential problems before they become life threatening.
Proponents of full-body scanning, including physician entrepreneurs offering the service, say it can cut healthcare costs through early diagnosis.
“What we do is a wellness screening,” said Philip Voluck, chief executive of CT Screening International of Irvine, operator of scanning centers in Newport Beach and four other California cities. “We catch disease at its very earliest stage.”
But full-body scanning has its critics. Dr. Jeffrey Stoddard, a researcher at the Center for Studying Health System Change in Washington, D.C., said the procedure is aimed at the affluent “worried, well, Woody Allen-type hypochondriac.”
And earlier this year, the American College of Radiology came out against full-body scans, saying there isn’t any scientific evidence showing they help patients live longer.
That hasn’t stopped full-body scanning from taking hold in Orange County, where affluence and health consciousness go hand in hand.
While insurance almost never pays for the procedure on people who don’t have symptoms, the scans could become a factor for hospitals, healthcare providers and insurers, such as Santa Ana-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc.
If “the worried wealthy well” can get full-body scanning and the market becomes saturated, “then the average person will demand access,somebody’s going to have to pay,” said Dr. Jim Doty, a former chief of neurosurgery at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach. Doty now teaches at Stanford University School of Medicine and is chief executive of DxTx Corp. in Mountain View.
Like Viagra did for prescription drugs, the buzz around full-body scans could bring pressure on insurers, employers and healthcare providers to offer access to the procedure. Or lawmakers could jump in with their two cents on the issue.
“I guarantee you that it will be covered, either by legislation or by pressure from large employers,” said John Nicoli, a vice president in the Irvine office of insurance broker USI of Southern California Insurance Services.
But full-body scanning, which generally costs upward of $500 a procedure out-of-pocket, may not need insurance company support to be commercially viable.
Despite the high cost of the equipment, CT Screening’s Voluck said, third-party backing isn’t essential. But it would open up the procedure to a wider range of patients for screening, he said.
Still, Voluck is realistic: “Unless research is done that shows the validity, third-party insurance will not pay for it,” he said.
Other scanning providers argue the procedure is in the long-term interest of insurers and healthcare providers.
“It’ll certainly drive costs down,” said Dr. Stephen Shapiro, chief executive and medical director of InsideTrac, a Beverly Hills-based scanning center that’s searching for possible locations in OC. “If you have an early screening, you can care (for the patient) much more efficiently. You’ll have much less invasive procedures, chemotherapy.”
If InsideTrac comes to OC, it will join several other full-body scanning centers, including CT Screening, HealthView Center for Preventative Medicine in Newport Beach and Advanced BodyScan of Newport. Representatives for the latter two centers did not return telephone calls for this story.
To be sure, the marketing of full-body scanning has made the providers of the procedure lightning rods for criticism.
“It’s an extremely wasteful patient care procedure (that) physician entrepreneurs are using for a huge money-making racket in the absence of thorough investigation of its consequences or endorsement by professional medical societies,” blasted Dr. Joel Handler, an OC internist who practices with Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente.
PacifiCare isn’t considering covering full-body scanning, according to Dr. Sam Ho, the company’s corporate medical director. PacifiCare considers covering medical procedures only if they have met scientific-based safety and efficacy standards, he said.
“There is still no evidence to date and no medical rationale for approving (scanning coverage), in spite of the growing demand,” Ho said. “Within the next year, there is no suggestion that it will become a mainstream medical therapy.”
As far as a push from employers for scanning coverage, Ho said he’s seen demand soften for rider coverage that pays for some parts of other “market-driven therapies,” such as laser eye surgery, alternative medicine and weight-loss treatment.
PacifiCare also would resist any governmental attempts to mandate full-body scan coverage, according to Ho.
“(Lawmakers) don’t legislate other contractual relationships,” he said.
Robert Town, a health economics professor at the University of California, Irvine, Graduate School of Management, said insurers shouldn’t be in the business of offering what he called elective procedures and treatments. Those could include the cosmetic usage of Irvine-based Allergan Inc.’s Botox neurotoxin and “lifestyle” treatments such as Viagra, Pfizer Inc.’s erectile dysfunction drug.
Town points to how insurers handle mental healthcare.
“Insurance companies are vigilant about separating mental conditions vs. personal growth, depression vs. trying to find (yourself),” he said.
Even regulators have weighed in on full-body scanning. The Food and Drug Administration said it was concerned that the procedure’s popularity might be exposing Americans to unnecessary and potentially dangerous radiation. But once the FDA has approved a medical device, such as a CT scanner, its use can’t be curtailed.
In the absence of specific scientific data, scanning centers often promote their services by using anecdotal evidence from patients who have undergone the procedure, such as testimonials from celebrities.
“This brings unbelievable value to patients. The technology is breathtaking,” InsideTrac’s Shapiro said.
As for scientific studies, “for full-body scanning, we will be developing a lot of the data ourselves. That’s forthcoming,” he said, adding that “naysayers are very powerful” in traditional medicine.
CT Screening’s Voluck also pointed out that research exists, including a Cornell University-Weill Medical College study showing that 83% of early lung cancers spotted by CT screens are curable, as opposed to 80% of those being caught with conventional chest X-rays that are incurable.
Even so, Dr. Joseph Brugman, a radiologist and chief of staff at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, said he finds the aggressive marketing of full-body scanning “offensive.”
“It makes people think there’s a scientific reason to do it. It degrades the science of medicine,” he said.
Brugman compared full-body scanning ads to those done by pharmaceutical companies: “They emphasize the parts they want you to hear, but mumble those you don’t want to hear.”
As for the proceedure itself, Brugman said: “For people under 50, I would not recommend it. If you’re over 50, I’m neutral.” n
