CMS issues final 'cost-centers' rule

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on August 2 implemented its controversial new policy changing the way it accounts for costs in its hospital inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS).

The final rule puts in place changes in how IPPS accounts for operating and capital costs that healthcare providers experience in delivering services. Most significant for radiology, the new system establishes separate cost estimates, or cost-to-charge centers, for calculating how much it costs to provide CT and MRI scans.

Opponents of the rule believe that it's based on faulty data on the costs involved in providing imaging exams, and that it would result in a 27% drop in the estimated costs used to calculate CT payments and a 15% drop in estimated costs for MRI. They say the new rule could result in estimated costs for some studies to be the same between CT and x-ray -- modalities that actually have very different capital operating costs.

The final rule is available by clicking here.