Only about 3% of radiology groups have responded to a crucial American Medical Association survey, according to an update shared Thursday.
The Medicare Physician Fee Schedule—also used by other commercial payers—relies on 2006 cost information to develop practice-expense relative values and resulting reimbursements. But this outdated information is leading to payment calculations that do not reflect today’s financial realities. AMA has contracted with consultancy Mathematica, which is aiming to reach 10,800 practices representing 90,000 healthcare providers for its survey.
The AMA selected a random sample of 230 physician-owned diagnostic and interventional radiology practices to participate in the poll. However, as of late November, only eight had submitted responses, the American College of Radiology reported. The situation is even more concerning for nuclear medicine and radiation oncology, as none of the three selected practices for nuclear medicine and only a few out of the 58 selected practices for radiation oncology have completed the survey.
“Despite their continuous efforts and reminders via email and mail to nearly 10,000 practices, the AMA has shared that the response rate for the [Physician Practice Information] survey has been low,” ACR said in a Jan. 25 news update. “It is critical that radiology participates in this survey effort to provide updated and accurate practice costs that are representative of our specialty.”
More than 170 medical societies have endorsed the survey and process behind it. Those include ACR, the American Society of Neuroimaging, the American Society of Neuroradiology, the Association of University Radiologists, RSNA, the Radiology Business Management Association, the Society of Interventional Radiology, and the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. Last summer, the college urged anyone contacted by Mathematica to respond, highlighting direct patient care hours as a key component of Medicare payment methodology.
ACR said the firm has encountered issues with cybersecurity safeguards that may be flagging its messages as spam. The college encouraged radiologists to connect with practice administrators to determine whether they were selected to participate. It’s possible more radiologists have been reached via the multispecialty group portion of the survey. However, “those response rates are also lacking,” ACR said.
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.