Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Just when it looked like the U.S. Congress was about to fix (for the duration of 2010, at least) the sustainable growth rate (SGR) fiasco, politics reared its ugly head: The House of Representatives is refusing to pass SGR legislation that cleared the Senate until that body produces a jobs bill preferred by House leaders.
That's according to an update filed this morning in our Imaging Leaders Digital Community. Healthcare industry observers had hoped the Senate's passage of an SGR fix on June 18 meant that providers would be able to avoid a 21% reimbursement cut; now it looks like they'll be stuck with it a bit longer, especially since the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began processing claims at the lower rate on Friday.
Learn more by clicking here, or visit the community at leaders.auntminnie.com.
States slash mammo funding
Mammography advocates have always faced an uphill slog in trying to boost breast screening rates in the U.S., but now it must seem like a Sisyphean task as the tough economy forces many states to cut back on funding for screening programs.
That's the subject of a new article by associate editor Kate Madden Yee in our Women's Imaging Digital Community. The story offers a case study of California, which has been forced to close its low-income screening program to new enrollment and has raised the eligibility age for screening to 50 -- the same as that recommended by the controversial guidelines issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force last year.
Will other states follow California's lead? And how will the cuts affect mammography screening rates -- and, by extension, breast cancer mortality -- years down the line? Learn more by clicking here.
In other news in the community, a new study in the July issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology found that breast MRI has value in predicting remission of pathology after preoperative therapy. Read that story by clicking here, or visit the community at women.auntminnie.com.
CT reduces negative appendectomies
Meanwhile, in news from our CT Digital Community, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston analyzed 18 years of hospital records regarding the impact of CT in reducing the number of negative appendectomies performed at the institution.
They found that growing use of CT in evaluating patients suspected of having appendicitis was paralleled by a sharp drop in the number of unnecessary appendectomies. The research confirms two other recent studies demonstrating the utility of CT in reducing negative appendectomy rates. Learn more by clicking here.
Also be sure to check out a new study from Connecticut researchers, who found that CT angiography with 3D reconstruction is better than 2D echocardiography for left atrial volume quantification in patients with cardiovascular disease.
Get these stories and more in the CT Digital Community at ct.auntminnie.com.
