Radiology societies urge Trump administration to make remote imaging exam supervision permanent
Radiology societies are urging the Trump administration to make permanent a perk that allows for remote supervision of certain imaging exams.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services first granted this leeway in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing physicians to continue delivering care while social distancing. CMS extended the option through Dec. 31, but it is now set to expire by the year’s end.
Both the Radiology Business Management Association and American College of Radiology in separate letters recently asked top HHS officials to continue allowing remote supervision in 2026 and beyond. Currently, the rule lets physicians or other non-doc practitioners supervising level 2 diagnostic tests do so virtually via real-time audio and video technology.
RBMA noted, over the past four years, imaging providers have “safely and effectively” implemented virtual direct supervision. They’ve demonstrated that this innovation can drive patient access without threatening “program integrity or overutilization.”
Taking this perk away amid staffing challenges would exacerbate the problem, RBMA President Jamie Dyer, MBA, and the organization’s two co-executive directors contend.
“The radiology field is currently facing a severe workforce shortage,” they wrote to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. June 3 in response to a request for ways to deregulate the healthcare field. “Virtual supervision has become a critical tool that enables practices to meet the growing demand for imaging services while maintaining high standards of care. Eliminating this flexibility would significantly reduce outpatient imaging capacity, forcing many patients to seek services in hospital-based settings. This shift would not only increase healthcare costs but also reduce access and convenience for patients.”
Meanwhile, ACR also made its case in a separate letter June 9, sent to CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, MD, MBA. The college’s message came in response to the agency’s request for feedback on the 2026 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System rule.
“As previously noted, making the presence of and ‘immediate availability’ of physicians and other practitioners through-real-time audio and visual interactive telecommunications a permanent part of the definition of direct supervision will help enable after hours access to radiology services and improve access in rural and underserved areas, where access issues are greater,” wrote CEO Dana H. Smetherman, MD, MBA, MPH. “For the above reasons, the ACR continues to believe remote direct supervision for level 2 diagnostic imaging tests is appropriate and will ensure patients have access to timely and safe diagnostic imaging.”
The college also highlighted several other issues of note in its letter. These included:
- Taking action to remove the “burdensome” limitation on radiologists in the CMS regulation related to treating physicians.
- Eliminating the Deficit Reduction Act cap for imaging services.
- Defaulting all costs and charges under the OPPS to a single diagnostic radiology cost center and not using the CT- and MRI-specific cost centers for valuing services under the OPPS and IPPS.
- Leveraging enforcement discretion to focus the HHS Office of Inspector General investigations and application of provider disincentives on clearly intentional, repetitive and anti-competitive “bad faith” behaviors by major actors.
- Making changes to the Merit-based Incentive Payment System so the program better applies to radiologists and other physicians who don’t fit neatly into these payment models, due to how they practice medicine.
- Revisiting the Imaging Appropriate Use Criteria program and making necessary changes to address challenges associated with its implementation.
- Swiftly releasing a previously announced final rule aimed at improving the No Surprises Act.
You can read much more about the ACR’s request in the letter here and a news update posted Wednesday about it.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.