The amount of time imaging equipment is in use in outpatient settings does not approach use rates President Obama and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recommend Medicare use to calculate reimbursement for imaging, according to data recently collected by the Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA).
RBMA's data consist of 261 imaging machines in 46 centers. The data show that imaging equipment in rural regions of the country operates only 48% of the time an office is open, while equipment in nonrural areas operates 56% of the time a center is open.
President Obama recently recommended that the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) base its reimbursement formula on a 95% utilization rate for advanced imaging equipment, while MedPAC has recommended a 90% utilization rate for equipment that costs more than $1 million, the RBMA said.
Right now, CMS assumes imaging equipment is in use, on average, 50% of the available time, suggesting that the current Medicare utilization rate is similar to the actual rate at which imaging equipment operates. Increasing the utilization assumption to a level higher than actual use rates would result in a severe cut for imaging reimbursements, which would impair access to diagnostic imaging services and cause patients to delay or forgo necessary imaging procedures, according to the RBMA.
Related Reading
Imaging groups lobby against MedPAC call for more payment cuts, March 26, 2009
AMIC criticizes MedPAC report, February 26, 2009
Medical imaging hopes to cut losses in Medicare reform debate, January 27, 2009
Beware, AMIC says: The DRA could be the least of it, June 10, 2008
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