The American College of Radiology (ACR) and a coalition of other radiology organizations are raising objections to a plan to change how Medicare pays for hospital-based CT and MRI scans.
ACR has submitted a letter to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) expressing concerns about the proposal for separate CT and MR cost centers as part of the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rule, ACR said.
In a letter sent on June 12 to Marilyn Tavenner, CMS' acting administrator, the coalition asked CMS to withdraw its proposal to use separate cost centers for CT and MR in the 2014 IPPS rule. It also asked the agency to avoid including an extension of such a proposal in the 2014 Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) rule.
"A full analysis of the practical impact of this policy demonstrates that it would result in incongruous and inaccurate Medicare reimbursements for CT and MR services in both the hospital and nonhospital settings -- jeopardizing patient access to these services," the coalition said.
ACR said it will submit separate comments to CMS on the IPPS rule and post its final letter by the end of June.
