The agency downgraded certain notes to “CC,” indicating the obligations are “highly vulnerable” to nonpayment, with default “expected to be a virtual certainty.”

Imaging advocacy groups including AdvaMed recently implored the U.S. General Services Administration to postpone the deal. 

Such insurers are slated to collect more than $7 trillion over the next decade, with MA now accounting for over 50% of all Medicare enrollment. 

“It is critical that radiology participates in this survey effort to provide updated and accurate practice costs that are representative of our specialty," ACR urged.

Lobbyists for physician groups have testified against the proposal, concerned it could punish providers for not relaying meaningless findings to patients. 

Another 36% think that both magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography use the same technology to create diagnostic images. 

“We’re getting less and less referrals, and that number is dropping,” Anthony Mitarotondo, MD, director of Stony Brook Radiology, said during a recent public hearing. 

The Neiman Imaging Comorbidity Index was created using claims from over 10.5 million individuals covered by a large commercial payer.