The New Deal

Staff Writer | | Radiology Business | Business Intelligence

Beginning January 1, 2006, imaging centers and in-office providers of imaging will collect 25% less on the technical component for most MR/MRA, CT/CTA, and ultrasound studies conducted on contiguous body parts. Transvaginal and ultrasound of the breast were spared the contiguous-body-part discount, as were hospital-based imaging centers paid under the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System. The HOPPS reprieve is likely to be short-lived, however, as CMS announced its intention to thoroughly investigate the potential cost efficiencies in the imaging of contiguous body parts in 2006. CMS will also investigate whether the originally proposed 50% reduction is in order. Further cuts could be in the cards, both for freestanding and hospital-based outpatient imaging centers. Click here to learn more about this issue: www.cms.hhs.gov/media/press/release.asp?Counter=1709 www.cms.hhs.gov/media/press/release.asp?Counter=1711 www.acr.org/s_acr/doc.asp?CID=2540&DID=22790

Staff Writer

Related Content

Orano Med breaks ground on $265M thorium production site
Image-interpretation market scoreboard: Radiologists 72%, others 28%
Lantheus lands rights to budding radiopharmaceuticals for initial outlay of $35M
17 short-term strategies to address the national radiologist shortage
‘SR’ onboards another independent practice, its 1st in the Natural State
Analysis: Allied radiology professionals generate millions of dollars per year in indirect revenues alone

Around the web

Health Imaging
Nearly $800,000 settlement offered to family of man who died during MRI exam

The patient, who was being cared for in the ICU, was not accompanied or monitored by nursing staff during his exam, despite being sedated.

Cardiovascular Business
Global shortage of nuclear imaging isotopes may be over

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

Cardiovascular Business
‘A huge win’: CMS significantly increases Medicare payments for cardiac CT

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.