WASHINGTON — Some current or former heavy smokers may benefit from a new lung cancer test even if they’re 65 or older – although they experience more false alarms, suggests an analysis that comes as Medicare is debating whether to pay for the scans.

Lung cancer kills nearly 160,000 Americans a year, in part because tumors aren’t usually detected early enough for treatment to stand a good chance.

A major study released in 2011 showed that low-dose CT scans of the lungs of people at especially high risk because of heavy smoking can cut their chances of dying from lung cancer by 20 percent.

Based on that study, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Forces recently recommended the yearly test for people ages 55 to 80 who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 30 years, or the equivalent.

Under the Affordable Care Act, private insurers must start covering the scans with no co-pays. But the health-care law doesn’t require Medicare to pay for the scans, which can cost $100 to $400. Medicare’s advisers have questioned if the test really will benefit seniors.

A reanalysis of the study found that to prevent one lung cancer death required screening 245 seniors compared to 364 people ages 55 to 64, researchers reported Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine.

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