Dear AuntMinnie Member,
As if 2020 hasn't been challenging enough already, the radiology community was rocked this week by news that a patient suffered third-degree facial burns while wearing a mask that apparently had metal in it during an MRI scan.
The news came in the form of a warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on December 7 that advised MRI providers to make sure that if one of their patients is wearing a mask in the magnet bore, it doesn't have any metal in it. Better yet, providers shouldn't let patients wear their own masks. Instead, patients should be given disposable surgical masks, according to one MRI safety expert.
While the FDA didn't provide many details on the episode that led to the warning, it sounds remarkably similar to one reported to the agency's Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience Database in October. In the report, the patient noted, "Basically, I have a mask burned into my face."
You'll find these stories and more in our MRI Community.
Medicare payment cuts
As we go to press, the entire healthcare community and its allies are mobilizing to head off dramatic cuts in Medicare reimbursement that could begin in January.
The biggest change is the adoption of a new coding structure for patient evaluation and management (E/M) services; this could result in an increase in E/M payments, which under Medicare rules would have to be offset by cuts in other areas -- such as radiology. Our friends at Healthcare Administrative Partners explain the changes in an article in our Imaging Leaders Community.
Healthcare organizations are mounting a last-ditch effort to stop the cuts, and they have enlisted a range of congressional allies in the attempt. Time will tell whether they succeed.
Security advisory
Finally, a major multimodality OEM is responding to a security flaw that could expose users of its medical imaging scanners. The details are in our Enterprise Imaging Community.
