Dear AuntMinnie Member,
If you thought that recent studies documenting a decline in imaging utilization would prompt the U.S. government to stop cutting Medicare reimbursement, think again.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this week released its proposed physician payment schedule for 2014, and it includes new cuts in reimbursement for most imaging services. The one notable exception is nuclear medicine services, which got a 1% payment increase.
The proposed 2014 cuts come on top of lower reimbursement rates implemented last year. And while the new cuts aren't as severe as those in 2013, they indicate that radiology won't be getting relief anytime soon from federal budget-cutting efforts. Read more by clicking here.
3D and your clinicians
In our Advanced Visualization Digital Community, check out part 2 of our series on using 3D advanced visualization software to improve your service to referring physicians.
Based on a talk given at the recent International Symposium on Multidetector-Row CT by Laura Pierce, who manages the 3D lab at Duke University, the article discusses how important it is to acquire firsthand knowledge of the expectations that clinicians have for CT image postprocessing.
When Duke's 3D lab surveyed clinicians to find out their needs for 3D, they learned that some respondents felt radiology wasn't fully engaged with referring physicians. Indeed, some survey participants felt that radiologists created 3D reconstructions only for cases they were interested in -- not the ones that clinicians needed.
Learn more by clicking here, or visit our Advanced Visualization Digital Community at av.auntminnie.com.
New PET uses
Finally, visit our Molecular Imaging Digital Community to read two articles on novel uses for PET technology.
First, researchers from the Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders in New Haven, CT, used PET with a florbetaben radiopharmaceutical to investigate beta-amyloid deposits in people with Down syndrome. These individuals are at higher risk for cognitive impairment later in life, and the researchers wanted to use florbetaben's known affinity for beta amyloid to investigate the biological process that could be causing this decline. Learn more by clicking here.
Next up is a story on the use of FDG-PET in combination with a diffusion-weighted MRI technique to predict therapeutic response to chemotherapy treatment in patients with osteosarcoma. Is it better to use the modalities together or independently? Find out by clicking here, or visit the community at molecular.auntminnie.com.
