Dear Imaging Center Insider,
When the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published its final Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for 2008 late last year, the guidance included an anti-markup provision intended to remove the profit motive from the professional component.
On the surface, this provision seemed a victory, and it does have some benefit. But it may have created more challenges than solutions, according to W. Kenneth Davis Jr. of the law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman. To find out more about the ramifications of this rule, click here. As an Imaging Center Insider, you have access to the article days before the rest of our members.
This week brings more CMS news, both good and bad. In December 2007, CMS announced that it was proposing a national coverage policy that would have severely limited Medicare payments for coronary CTA exams. But the agency said yesterday that it has decided to make no change to coronary CTA reimbursement.
However, physicians may be facing a 10% cut in reimbursement, effective July 1, unless Congress approves legislation regarding Medicare's sustainable growth rate formula.
As for other Imaging Center Digital Community stories, read about how it's time for radiologists to take a stand in Congress to survive in a post-DRA world, and how Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston are moving toward 100% EMR adoption. Also find out how wise planning can help bring the 3D lab to the community practice.
Have a comment or report to share about any aspect of diagnostic imaging practice, management, administration, regulation, or financing? Please contact me at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you.
