The American College of Radiology (ACR) wasted no time in voicing its opposition to medical imaging reimbursement cuts in the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 (HR 4872) passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last night.
In a prepared statement, the ACR maintained that the reductions will "shift necessary imaging care to large hospitals, increase the cost to Medicare of appropriate imaging, produce longer commutes and wait times for patients to receive care, and cause potentially life-threatening delays in diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other serious illnesses."
The bill, awaiting President Obama's signature, would raise the imaging equipment utilization rate assumption, the time during office hours that imaging equipment is assumed to be in operation, from the current 50% rate to 75%.
This statute would apply to all diagnostic imaging equipment with a purchase price of more than $1 million, such as MRI and CT systems. The U.S. Senate's healthcare reform legislation would have set the equipment utilization rate for all advanced diagnostic imaging services at 65% through 2012, 70% in 2013, and 75% in 2014 and beyond.
The wider the gap between the new, mandated 75% rate and the actual time a provider uses scanners, the deeper the reimbursement reduction, the ACR noted.
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