A First Federal Step into Evidence Based Medicine

New York Times' Gina Kolata argues that Medicare's new policy of requiring evidence of efficacy for any new or expensive care for recipients amounts to a huge step into evidence based medicine. While she does not put the move into international context, it will be interesting to see scholars do so. Kolata's take is that this is a big move overall:

At issue are questions that will determine the future and price of health care: Do new cancer drugs costing $10,000 to $20,000 a dose help in many situations where they are now being prescribed? What are the long-term effects of weight-loss surgery, costing $30,000 to $40,000 per operation even when there are no complications? How well do implantable defibrillators for heart patients, each costing $35,000, work? Will PET scans to look for early Alzheimer's disease, costing $1,670 per scan, make any difference?