In a nod to marketplace realities, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has set an effective date of 2007 for a regulatory change prohibiting the self-referral of patients in diagnostic nuclear medicine and therapeutic nuclear medicine.
In a final rule published last week, the agency revised the definitions of two categories of designated health services (DHS) subject to the physician self-referral ban to include diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine services and supplies. Under the physician self-referral statute and regulations, a physician is prohibited from making referrals for diagnostic health services to an entity with which he or she (or an immediate family member) has a financial relationship, unless an exception applies.
CMS said it recognizes that the inclusion of nuclear medicine as a diagnostic health service may have an impact on some current arrangements under which patients are receiving medical care, and that some financial arrangements may have to be restructured. Therefore, CMS said it is delaying the effective date for this regulatory change until January 1, 2007. The agency had originally proposed that the change would go into effect in 2006.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writers
November 7, 2005
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CMS seeks to rein in nuclear medicine self-referral, August 31, 2005
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CMS to limit nuclear medicine self-referral, August 2, 2005
CMS proposes cuts for 'add-on' imaging studies, July 19, 2005
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