The Access to Medical Imaging Coalition (AMIC) is asking Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) chairman Glenn Hackbarth to reconsider the commission's recent recommendations on diagnostic imaging utilization.
In a letter to Hackbarth, AMIC said that implementing the recommendations from the April meeting would further limit access to life-saving diagnostic imaging services while yielding questionable savings for the Medicare program. The coalition expressed particular concern over MedPAC's recommendation to utilize prior authorization for imaging services.
"Prior authorization has never been used in the Medicare program, impedes patient access to needed care, places huge administrative burdens on providers, and has not been shown to reduce costs over the long term," AMIC said in the letter. "From the perspective of patient advocates, prior authorization would mean placing a barrier between patients and the services their physician believes are necessary, which could lead to delayed or denied care. From the provider perspective, prior authorization means having to devote additional uncompensated physician time as well as staff time to a burdensome administrative process."
AMIC is urging MedPAC instead to consider alternatives such as promoting the use of evidence-based, physician-developed appropriateness criteria for imaging services.
Several patient advocacy groups also signed the letter, including the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network, Chris4Life Colon Cancer Foundation, Colon Cancer Alliance, It's My Heart, Kidney Cancer Association, Us TOO International Prostate Cancer Education and Support Network, Women Against Prostate Cancer, YES! Beat Liver Tumors, and ZERO: The Project to End Prostate Cancer.
