Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Yes, the utilization of medical imaging really is falling in the Medicare system.
That's according to a new study we're profiling in our Imaging Leaders Community. A research group led by Dr. David C. Levin of Thomas Jefferson University tracked the use of imaging in Medicare from 2001 to 2014 and found that while imaging use grew until about 2008, since then it's declined or flattened out.
The study uncovered some interesting data points. For example, the biggest declines were seen in imaging exams that were the target of code bundling by Medicare authorities. With code bundling, Medicare targeted what it felt was overutilization by combining multiple reimbursement codes into a single code.
Code bundling drove utilization down dramatically in echocardiography and nuclear imaging, and less so in CT. Meanwhile, exams that weren't subject to code bundling, such as MRI and noncardiac ultrasound, saw declines that were less steep.
Will the numbers persuade federal regulators to lift the pressure on imaging reimbursement? Only time will tell, but you can read all about the new study by clicking here, or visit the community at leaders.auntminnie.com.
CT radiation dose also falls
Another thing that's falling is CT radiation dose. Researchers from Duke University performed a study that tracked dose levels over seven years for CT studies of four anatomical regions.
The good news is that radiation dose did indeed drop over the course of the study. The bad news is that the researchers found wide variations in radiation dose over the four exams. Learn more by clicking here, or visit our CT Community at ct.auntminnie.com.
AI for knee MRI
Finally, visit our MRI Community to learn about a natural language processing algorithm that was developed to analyze radiology reports of knee MRI exams to reduce unnecessary studies. Read all about it by clicking here, or visit mri.auntminnie.com.