An alliance of healthcare providers, technology companies, and diagnostic imaging organizations has established a national initiative to promote health IT-enabled decision support for ordering appropriate diagnostic tests, according to founding member, the American College of Radiology (ACR) of Reston, VA.
Members of the coalition include the Center for Diagnostic Imaging, GE Healthcare, Medicalis, Merge Healthcare, and Nuance Communications. The group plans to educate policy makers and healthcare providers about e-Ordering, a data driven approach to making clinical decisions, promote existing health IT legislative efforts, ask lawmakers to include e-Ordering in the development of healthcare system efficiency incentives, and act as a resource for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for its Medicare Imaging Demonstration Project, which was established by Congress as part of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008.
e-Ordering addresses concerns associated with radiology benefit management firms, which some insurers hire to manage utilization and costs associated with advanced imaging. Some of these concerns include patients being denied imaging studies that are warranted or directed toward less expensive tests that may not provide the necessary clinical information, the coalition said.
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