Survey Finds Hospitals Spending Less on PET/CT Systems

The August Modern Healthcare/ECRI Institute Technology Price Index revealed a 27% drop in the average price paid by surveyed hospitals for PET/CT systems between May and June. For the past 12 months, the average price is down 21%.In an accompanying article, Modern Healthcare analyzed the trend and attributed the big drop in the average price to hospitals opting for lower price systems that fit their budgets rather than higher-end models, such as 64-slice scanners or 128-slice systems. PET/CT systems are one of around 30 supply and capital items purchased by health care providers that Modern Healthcare and the non-profit ECRI Institute research organization track to determine their Technology Price Index. The August Technology Price Index also showed a 12-month decline in the average price of CT scanners of 23.6%. However, MRI systems seemed to be holding steady. Although the average MRI system price dropped 12.7% between May and June, for the past 12 months, the average price was only down 0.2%.