AMIC criticizes MedPAC report

The Access to Medical Imaging Coalition (AMIC) is taking issue with a recent Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recommendation to change the formula that determines physician reimbursement rates for advanced imaging procedures.

MedPAC had called on the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to increase the formula's assumption about the amount of time that advanced imaging equipment is used by physicians by 40%.

However, according to Washington, DC-based lobbying group AMIC, the report is based on a flawed survey that utilized an insignificant sample size of only six urban medical imaging centers. Also, MedPAC surveyed only CT and MR studies, but its recommendations cover imaging modalities not surveyed, including PET and nuclear medicine. In addition, the methodology used by MedPAC to make its utilization assumptions did not account for the health or age of the patient, AMIC said.

AMIC said it's also calling for a new public-private partnership with CMS to collect accurate and comprehensive utilization data to better inform future recommendations.

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Beware, AMIC says: The DRA could be the least of it, June 10, 2008

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