DOTmed Industry Sector Report: Bone Densitometers

by Barbara Kram, Editor | May 20, 2009

-Unlike other imaging procedures, DXA remains severely underutilized with only one in four women taking advantage of the benefit every two years.
-Underutilization of bone mass measurement will strain the Medicare budget because:
-55% of the people age 50 and older in 2002 had osteoporosis or low bone mass;
-More than 61,000,000 people in the United States are projected to have osteoporosis or low bone mass in 2020, as compared to 43,000,000 in 2002;
-Osteoporosis fractures are projected to increase by almost half over the next two decades with at least 3,000,000 fractures expected to occur annually by 2025;

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-The population aged 65 and older represents 89% of fracture costs; and
-The economic burden of osteoporosis fractures is projected to increase by half over the next two decades, reaching $25,300,000,000 in 2025.
-Underutilization of bone mass measurement will also strain the Medicaid budget, which funds treatment for osteoporosis in low-income Americans.
-Reimbursement under the Medicare program for DXA provided in physician offices and other non-hospital settings was reduced by half and is scheduled to be reduced by a total of 62% by 2010. This drop represents one of the largest reimbursement reductions in the history of the Medicare program. Reimbursement for VFA will also be reduced by 30% by 2010.
-The reduction in reimbursement discourages physicians from continuing to provide access to DXA or VFA in their offices. Since two-thirds of all DXA scans are performed in non-facility settings, such as physician offices, patient access to bone mass measurement will be severely compromised as physicians discontinue providing those tests in their offices, thereby exacerbating the current underutilization of the benefit.