The ACR monitors multiple federal legislative issues and provides resources including issue summaries, congressional committees of jurisdiction and bill-tracking information.
The ACR Government Relations department deals with Medicare-related legislation affecting the practice of radiology. With regard to reimbursement, ACR is deeply involved with what has become an annual event on Capitol Hill - delaying impending cuts to the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) portion of the Medicare Fee Schedule formula.
Application of an MPPR to the professional component of diagnostic imaging services performed on the same patient on the same day is an arbitrary and imprecise tool to control Medicare spending. Imposition of this policy will also make it difficult for radiologists to keep free-standing imaging facilities open for business, thus threatening patient access to important diagnostic imaging services.
The dramatic proliferation in the volume of diagnostic medical imaging services performed by physicians, including non-radiologists, has inflicted a colossal burden on the U.S. health care system, especially Medicare. The leading component of this explosion is the growing trend of entrepreneurial physicians manipulating the in-office ancillary services exception to the Stark self-referral law. The ACR is deeply concerned that this exception has become a damaging loophole.