Advocacy group Public Citizen is criticizing health screenings offered by HealthFair Health Screening, a company that offers mobile screening services.
In a June 19 press release, Public Citizen urged 20 hospitals in eight states to cut ties with HealthFair, calling the company's cardiovascular screening programs "unethical" and "much more likely to do harm than good."
HealthFair offers a variety of health screening tests, some of which use medical imaging technologies, such as abdominal aortic aneurysm screening with ultrasound, carotid artery ultrasound, and bone density ultrasound.
Public Citizen claims that HealthFair partners with hospitals and medical institutions to offer screening packages to individuals living in their geographic areas. The packages are marketed by both HealthFair and the hospitals using tactics that Public Citizen described as "fearmongering."
Public Citizen went on to charge that HealthFair pitches the tests on a widespread basis "without identifying who has relevant risk factors that would make each of the screening tests medically appropriate." In a letter to the hospitals, Public Citizen claims that no evidence-based guidelines issued by major medical associations support the use of six of the tests for widespread screening of asymptomatic people. A sample of the Public Citizen letter is available here.
Such "indiscriminate testing" is more likely to lead to harm than good, according to the group, due to false-positive results that will require additional tests and treatments that could cause harm and patient anxiety.
Public Citizen sent the letters to hospitals in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, and Virginia.
