Excerpt: Preventive services have been a prime component of the Obama administration's vision for healthcare reform. Underlying it is the idea that prevention adds up to billions in savings by boosting patient wellness and providing early detection of conditions that, if allowed to go untreated, could wind up costing more in their advanced stages. But not so fast. Douglas W. Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, sent a letter to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee citing a 2008 study in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed that 'slightly fewer than 20% of [preventive] services that were examined save money, while the rest add to costs. ... [S]creening costs will exceed the savings from avoided treatment in cases in which only a very small fraction of the population would become ill in the absence of preventive measures.'  MORE >>