Dr. Aditya Khurana from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, will talk about his team's findings, which looked at Medicare data between 2010 and 2020 for both contrast and noncontrast breast MRI exam volumes. The researchers calculated utilization rates by dividing the annual number of breast MRI exams by the annual number of female Part B Medicare beneficiaries. From there, they calculated the number of screening mammograms per 10,000 female Medicare enrollees for each year.
The team found that overall utilization of breast MRI increased from 36.6 to 56 exams per 10,000 enrollees from 2010-2019. However, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a decrease to 49.5 per 10,000 enrollees in 2020.
Also, most exams were performed in outpatient hospital on-campus facilities, increasing from 18.3 per 10,000 in 2010 to 28.2 in 2019. Private offices were next, increasing from 17.8 per 10,000 in 2010 to 23.4 in 2019. Both settings saw 9% and 17.4% decreases between 2019 and 2020.
Overall, however, "Breast MRI has experienced tremendous growth in the Medicare population during the past decade, especially from 2010 to 2019," authors wrote.
More findings from this research will be presented at the meeting.
