It all comes down to money, although I find this statement amusing:
The most cutting comment at Tuesday’s hearing came from Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga., who said the imaging reimbursement cuts in the Deficit Reduction Act should be eliminated: He said the representatives from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPAC, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, who testified Tuesday “have no idea what they are talking about,” when they asserted medical imaging services have been overused.
There is clear overuse of imaging services. The reasons for this are legion, but can be boiled down to defensive tests and the lack of disincentive to test.
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- Radiology and overtesting
- Should doctors competitively bid for Medicare rates?
- Hospitals are closing
- My take: GE and radiology, health reform, MacBook Air
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And of course, physicians don’t get paid for spending time with their patients, so they just toss them off to a test and call “next” because volume of patients makes them more money.
the wait for radiology services will now become insurmountable
private radiology offices will diminish and perish
hospital based radiology services are not equipped to handle the immense extra load
patients will suffer
good thinking congress
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