MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Medicare lacks the tools to successfully implement care based on the best available scientific evidence, a University of Minnesota study found.

Principal investigator Susan Bartlett Foote said by law Medicare must pay only for items or services deemed "reasonable and necessary." However, she said, Medicare appears reluctant to aggressively enforce policies that affect medical judgments, even if those decisions are inconsistent with scientific evidence.

Using techniques such as meta-analysis of medical literature, risk-benefit analysis and randomized controlled trials, evidence-based medicine requires healthcare professionals to make "conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence" in their everyday practice.

"We have seen abuses where payers deny needed and necessary care. ... Medicare is ... directed not to pay for procedures unless they are reasonable and necessary," Bartlett Foot said in a statement. "There’s an inherent tension between these goals. However, in an era of rising costs and questionable quality, we must refine tools to ensure that patients get care based on scientific evidence."

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