The good news is that private-practice offices and imaging centers received the lion’s share of reimbursement for noninvasive diagnostic imaging.
Dear Imaging Center Insider,A recent report from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association found that radiological modalities bear much of the blame for rising U.S. healthcare costs. However, researchers at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia say the increases can't be dumped at the feet of radiologists.
The group surveyed U.S. Medicare Part B databases from 1993 to 2001 and found that cardiologists are mostly responsible for the acute increase in medical imaging reimbursement.
In fact, cardiologists saw more than twice the growth of radiologists in Medicare imaging reimbursement. While radiologists showed a 58.4% uptick for the eight-year period, cardiologist reimbursement for noninvasive diagnostic imaging procedures increased by 126.5%.
The good news is that private-practice offices and imaging centers received the lion’s share of reimbursement for noninvasive diagnostic imaging. Although radiologists in this setting saw a 105% reimbursement advance, cardiologists enjoyed a 240% increase in payments for the same period.
The surge in noninvasive diagnostic imaging by cardiologists could result in closer scrutiny of practices in private imaging centers and offices, especially when viewed in light of the potential for self-referred studies done by this specialty.
To learn more about this retrospective analysis of noninvasive diagnostic imaging reimbursement, go to http://www.auntminnie.com/default.asp?Sec=sup&Sub=imc&Pag=dis&ItemId=60491.
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