The American College of Radiology (ACR) has thrown its support behind legislation to replace the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula.
The U.S. Congress this week reached a deal to repeal the SGR and replace it with a series of payment increases to physicians over the next five years. ACR applauded the inclusion of several provisions backed by the society designed to raise the quality of care, make care more efficient, and increase transparency in physician payment policy.
ACR noted that the bill would require ordering providers to consult physician-developed appropriateness criteria when prescribing advanced medical imaging studies for Medicare patients.
The legislation would direct the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to identify mechanisms, such as clinical decision-support tools, by which ordering professionals could consult these criteria. Such ordering systems are shown to reduce duplicate and/or unnecessary scanning and associated costs.
Another provision with ACR support would require the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to produce the data used to justify a 2012 policy that implemented a 25% multiple procedure payment reduction to certain medical imaging procedures provided to the same patient on the same day in the same session.
ACR also supports provisions that would provide a positive payment update of 0.5% to physicians each year through 2018 and require that any specific cuts to medical services greater than 20% be phased in over two years.
