The pain may be real, but the scan is deceiving

Scans are expensive—Medicare and its beneficiaries pay about $750 to $950 for an M.R.I. scan of a knee or back, for example. Many doctors own their own scanners, which can provide an incentive to offer scans to their patients. But the scans are increasingly finding abnormalities that may not be the cause of the problem for which they are blamed, according to this article in the New York Times.