The Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005 is the target of new legislation introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives last week.
The bill, entitled the Access to Medicare Imaging Act of 2007, would seek a two-year delay in the DRA's reimbursement cuts, which went into effect on January 1. The bill is being spearheaded by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA), and Rep. Gene Green (D-TX), and has more than 20 other co-sponsors in the House.
In addition to the two-year delay, the bill would require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to evaluate the impact of the DRA's payment cuts on patient access and service issues, particularly in rural and underserved areas. Similar legislation failed to pass in the previous session of Congress.
To back up their effort this time, DRA opponents simultaneously released a report that they said shows the inequity of the DRA's payment cuts. Total Medicare reimbursement in physician offices and imaging centers will fall an estimated 18% to 19% below total reimbursement for similar services in hospital outpatient departments, according to the Access to Medical Imaging Coalition (AMIC) of Washington, DC.
The report also claims that the reduction in total payment for imaging services in physician offices and imaging centers in 2007 will be $1 billion deeper than prior to the DRA, an amount that's double the estimate of the Congressional Budget Office when the legislation was passed.
In addition, the report states that 89% of the procedures that are capped by the DRA and for which complete data are available will be paid at rates less than the estimated cost of performing the service in 2007. By 2010, this figure will rise to 99%.
AMIC has made available a spreadsheet of the report that provides an estimate of the costs of performing imaging procedures and compares them to DRA-mandated reimbursement levels in 2007 and 2010. The spreadsheet is available by clicking here.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writers
March 5, 2007
Related Reading
DRA's arrival forces imaging centers to adapt, February 1, 2007
Strategic plan, debt reduction: Proper responses to DRA, January 24, 2007
DRA 2005: The potential impact on the diagnostic imaging market, December 11, 2006
DRA threatens to throttle PET, October 13, 2006
Study finds 87% of DRA reimbursement below procedure cost, September 19, 2006
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