Hopes have been dashed that Congress would accept proposals to delay impending cuts to Medicare imaging reimbursements before recess. Lobbying efforts by industry-leading organizations such as the ACR have made significant headway. For example, ACR supports the proposed Access to Medicare Imaging Act of 2006 (H.R. 5704) and has gained substantial Congressional buy in with more than 100 co-sponsors.

Nevertheless, we will have to wait till our representatives return after the mid-term elections to learn what, if any, action is to be taken.

One part of the DRA that won't change is the tough new way that the U.S. will enforce Medicaid fraud rules - which go into effect on January 1, 2007.

Part of new rules will require false claims training of all employees, which may be extended to a facility's contractors and agents. To give the new requirements some real clout, the government will be adding up to 100 enforcement officers next year, and will be offering the states whistleblower rewards based on a percentage of the amounts recovered.

Imaging center operators better get up to speed on these new rules. DOTmed will be attending the RBMA Conference in Phoenix this October, and we'll see what else we can learn and report to you from there.

As DOTmed News has also reported, nearly 90 percent of the medical imaging procedures whose Medicare reimbursement rates would drop under the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 would be paid less than the estimated costs of performing the procedures in physician offices and independent imaging centers, according to The Moran Company.

That's unacceptable especially given the potential to discourage important and cost-saving preventive, diagnostic or early intervention efforts that imaging studies support.

Once the election's over, let's turn up the heat again to support revision legislation to, at the very least, study the potential impact of the cuts on patient access.

"To have such deep cuts go into effect without a thorough review would create an unfair burden for patients. The detrimental effects on the American health care system caused by these unsubstantiated cuts will be felt for many years to come," warned Arl Van Moore, MD, FACR, chair of the ACR Board of Chancellors.

The Deficit Reduction Act, passed by Congress in February, arbitrarily capped the technical component reimbursement for physician office imaging to the lesser of the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System or Medicare Fee Schedule payment, slashing reimbursement by up to 50 percent for many life-saving technologies, such as CT angiography (CTA) and brain or spine MRI, ACR reported.

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