government
60 House lawmakers demand that Medicare stop imaging cuts
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Oct. 29, 2012
A group of House Republicans and Democrats are protesting a Medicare agency proposal to reduce payment rates for multiple advanced imaging scans performed on the same Medicare beneficiaries.
The bipartisan group of 60 lawmakers wrote an Oct. 11 letter to Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, urging the agency to halt an expansion of the multiple procedure payment reduction policy. Currently, CMS lowers rates for certain advanced imaging scans when more than one imaging service is provided for the same patient on the same day. The proposed 2013 physician fee schedule released in July would broaden the policy to include certain imaging ordered by cardiologists and ophthalmologists.
“The proposed expansion of the multiple procedure payment reduction is inappropriately applied and based on flawed assumptions,” said Jerry Kennett, MD, chair of the American College of Cardiology’s advocacy steering committee.
Numerous lawmakers agree with Dr. Kennett. The letter states that the proposed policy assumes certain clinical activities are performed only once when two or more of the services are provided to the same patient by the same doctor or by another physician at the practice. “In reality, many of the clinical labor activities CMS considered redundant in the expanded MPPR policy are in fact performed multiple times, at different times of day, and in different rooms that rely on a variety of equipment,” the missive states.
The American Medical Association also supports abandoning the pay reduction policy.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/10/29/gvbf1029.htm.
