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Hospitals Offer Cheaper Lung Scans For Smokers

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A local hospital is offering discounts on CT scans for smokers.

Abbott Northwestern Hospital has begun offering discounts on low-dose lung scans after a national study found that early diagnoses can reduce mortality by 20 percent.

"This is the first randomized study ever performed showing a benefit of detecting a (lung) cancer early, that would actually lead to better a outcome", said Dr. Subarao Inampudi, a radiologist at Abbott Northwestern.

NewsRadio 830 WCCO's Steve Murphy Reports

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That's the reason Abbott Northwestern is offering an incentive for current and former smokers between the ages of 50 and 74 to get a CT scan.

The national study involved 56,000 subjects. The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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