To curb costs, physicians are increasingly going through pre-authorization procedures prior to ordering expensive MRIs, CTs, and nuclear heart studies.

They are mostly geared towards primary care physicians who order the majority of the tests.

Now, pre-authorizations are moving into specialty territory, requiring cardiologists and oncologists to endure the cumbersome procedure:

Two of the three biggest companies in the imaging field “” CareCore National and WellPoint’s American Imaging Management”“are looking over cardiologists shoulders when they order echocardiograms or want to put in a defibrillator, among other things.

The last of the big three, National Imaging Associates, a unit of Magellan Health Services, will start scrutinizing imaging for cardiac patients in January, according to NIA President Robert LaGalia.

Wow, imagine if a cardiologist had to get a pre-authorization for every echocardiogram.

But I digress. The larger issue is turf battles. The majority of doctors on the other end of the phone are radiologists. They have the power to slow cardiologists and gastroenterologists from performing cardiac CT scans and CT colonoscopies respectively, thus protecting their monopoly to these profitable studies.

topics: turf wars, radiology