Washington - Medicare payment cuts to imaging services are much deeper than previously disclosed, according to a new study conducted by Cleverley & Associates, a Columbus, Ohio based health care consulting firm. The analysis shows that imaging services will be cut an additional $100 because of a provision limiting reimbursement for certain types of services.

The cost of the cut in these services, impacting the scanning of contiguous body parts, were estimated at about $300 million by the Congressional Budget Office analysis accompanying the CHAMP legislation approved by the House of Representatives in August. According to the new study, the actual reduction over five years is approximately $420 million.

The Association for Quality Imaging (formerly the National Coalition for Quality Diagnostic Imaging Services) said further reductions - not accounted for by the CBO - are included with the creation of the new physician payment system also within CHAMP. An initial analysis showed that Medicare payment reductions of another 14 percent - on top of the cuts outlined above and the $1.4 billion identified by the CBO -- are likely under the so-called "mini-Standard Growth Rate silos" physician payment provision. The Association is finalizing an analysis on CHAMP changes to the SGR physician payment system.
Robert Baumgartner, Chairman of the Association for Quality Imaging, said these cuts will make it "virtually impossible" for many imaging centers to stay open.

"This will reduce access and quality," Baumgartner said. "Quality will be particularly impacted because centers that stay open will not have the money to upgrade their aging equipment or provide ongoing state-of-the-art training to their technicians." Baumgartner is also CEO of the Center for Diagnostic Imaging, Inc. CDI is an imaging company headquartered in Minneapolis.

Of the advances in medicine, few services have had a greater impact than that of diagnostic imaging (e.g. magnetic resonance imaging - MRI; computed axial tomography

- CAT scan; positron emission tomography - PET scan). State-of-the-art diagnostic imaging allows physicians to more accurately diagnose patients -- often without the costs and trauma of exploratory surgeries. "Diagnostic imaging is proven to produce savings by avoiding more costly surgical procedures, or helping physicians better understand the urgency and type of surgery that is required," according to Maggie Sayre, Executive Director of AQI.

"Congress made deep cuts - amounting to approximately 18 percent -- to Medicare

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