This is primarily defensive medicine.
My sister had headaches and turned out she had the worst of the worst brain cancer.
Thank God she is still alive - 2 years this July. But she is not the same.
I don’t know. A friend of mine had headaches, they gave her a brain scan - and found a fist-sized tumor. I think brain scans often find things of which a headache is the first sign.
Tough call. When my daughter was 28 (now 32) she presented with what seemed to be a migraine but ended up being a stroke in progress. Thanks to the doctors and God she is fine now.
Until they solve two problems, this overspending on health evaluations will continue. First, stop the ambulance chasing attorney’s from suing when that one in a hundred headache patients doesn’t get the scan the the brain tumor diagnosis is “delayed”, and finding a way to keep patients from doctor shopping because “I want a scan” until they find a doctor to order one (also second opinions paid for by someone else as is the scan!)
Patients do this quite frequently until they see the doctor who orders what they want or tells them what they want to hear!
In short, then, articles like this that tout ways to save money by avoiding unnecessary tests are nothing but a waste of ink or bandwidth.