Disclosure requirements demanded by Medicare requiring doctors ordering in-house CT, MR and PET imaging services to notify patients of alternative suppliers have taken effect, according to a notice from the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography.

At the time of referral, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services now require referring doctors to give patients a written notice of at least five rival groups within a 25 mile radius of the doctor's office.

This rule, which applies to any physicians referring an exam to a facility they have a financial stake in, took effect Jan. 1.
"We consider the rule a good first step toward addressing unnecessary utilization that studies show is often associated with self-referral," Shawn Farley, a spokesman for the American College of Radiology, told DOTmed News.

The new rule is born of health reform legislation passed last year, and applies to doctors who perform in-office ancillary services in exception to the so-called Stark Laws, designed to ban most imaging self-referral.

The final rule, released in November, includes a number of changes over proposed rules shared in June: it brings down the number of alternative suppliers suggested from 10 to five, and it does away with the need to obtain a patient's signature on the disclosure form or to save it in the patient's medical file.

CMS said they chose not to include X-ray and ultrasound services in the new regulations.

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