The American College of Radiology (ACR) strongly urges all members of the U.S. Senate to vote for passage of the Access to Medicare Imaging Act of 2007 (S. 1338), the bipartisan legislation calling for a two-year moratorium on drastic medical imaging reimbursement cuts included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) and a comprehensive Government Accountability Office (GAO) study to analyze the impact of the DRA cuts on patient access to lifesaving medical imaging care. S. 1338 was submitted to the Senate on May 8 by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) as well 14 co-sponsors* both Democrat and Republican.

The GAO study called for by the bill is particularly vital in light of July 2006 congressional testimony by the heads of both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) that neither body recommended the DRA cuts to Congress nor conducted any study as to their effect on patient access to care prior to passage of the DRA.

"I am pleased that both houses of Congress will now address these arbitrary and ill-advised cuts, which were slipped into the DRA at the last minute by those with little or no idea what effect the cuts would have on patient care. I urge the Senate and the House to pass the Access to Medicare Imaging Act before these drastic cuts irreparably damage patient access to care," said Arl Van Moore, M.D., chair of the ACR Board of Chancellors.
"I believe the $8 billion in imaging cuts were prematurely added to the Deficit Reduction Act in order to meet a budget target and were not based on sound public policy. These cuts represent almost a third of the total savings included in the Deficit Reduction Act, yet they were never debated by Congress," said Senator Rockefeller. "Physicians need imaging technology to ensure the best possible health outcomes for their patients, and they deserve to be fairly compensated for providing their patients access to this revolutionary technology."

The DRA imaging provisions, which became effective January 1, 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 and brain or spine MRI.

These drastic cuts may force many physicians to stop offering much needed imaging services or limit the number of Medicare patients they receive. The cuts may also discourage research and development of new imaging technologies that are increasingly replacing more invasive (and more costly) techniques. Medicare beneficiaries, particularly in rural areas, may be forced to endure increased wait and travel times to receive imaging services and higher copayments.

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