ACR Response to CMS Proposal to Make Nuclear Medicine Services Subject to Self-Referral Prohibitions
August 5, 2005
Contact: Shawn Farley
(703) 648-8936
E-mail: shawnf@acr.org
RESTON, Va – In its August 2, 2005, review copy of the proposed rule for the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing to classify diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine procedures as designated health services, thereby making them subject to the physician self-referral (Stark) prohibitions.
The American College of Radiology has been advising CMS that diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine services are part of radiology and should be incorporated into the definition of "radiology and certain other imaging services" which are already subject to physician self-referral prohibitions.
The ACR will certainly provide comments of support for the addition of nuclear medicine services to the list of those subject to physician self referral prohibitions, as well as comments regarding the overall proposed changes to the physician fee schedule during the formal comment period.
For more information, please contact ACR Public Relations Manager Shawn Farley at (703) 648-8936 or (703) 869-0292 (cell), or at shawnf@acr.org.
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The ACR is a national professional organization serving more than 32,000 diagnostic radiologists, radiation oncologists, interventional radiologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and medical physicists, with programs focusing on the practice of radiology and the delivery of comprehensive health care services.