ACR Shelves Accreditation MRI Module; Cites Self-Referral Trend in Conflict With This Program
Contact: Shawn Farley
(703) 648-8936
E-mail: shawnf@acr.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American College of Radiology Board of Chancellors voted against implementation of the ortho MRI module designed to accredit extremity-only MRI facilities operated by nonradiologists. The ACR characterized the vote as a stand against physician self-referral abuse, citing the skyrocketing costs associated with increased imaging utilization by nonradiologists and concerns that allowing nonradiologists to utilize these technologies might compromise patient safety. Today's decision reverses a preliminary approval given by the ACR Board of Chancellors in January.
"Our decision to proceed with the rollout of this module has been overcome by events. The mind-boggling increase in imaging procedures by nonradiologists—and the cost associated with it—is crippling the American health care system and denies patients the opportunity to have these tests interpreted by the physicians that are most qualified to do so!" said ACR President E. Stephen Amis, M.D., FACR. "Self-referral threatens access to quality health care and is a major factor in the escalation of health care costs. Rollout of the ortho MRI accreditation module, planned to improve the quality of imaging on these small MRI machines, is now totally out of sync with the necessity of seeking legislation to limit just this type of imaging," said Dr. Amis.
Diagnostic imaging is the fastest growing medical expenditure in the United States, with an annual growth rate (9 percent) that is more than double that of general medical procedures (4.1 percent). This extraordinary increase is due to nonradiologists (often without the required skills and expertise of a trained radiologist) investing in new technologies and, in possible violation of federal and state law, performing imaging procedures in their own practices or referring patients to facilities in which they have a financial interest.
The dramatic rise in imaging procedures by nonradiologists (many of which were shown to be unnecessary by recent studies) and the added cost associated with these procedures may also contribute to a sharp decrease in overall Medicare physician reimbursement rates.
Recent publications have shown that growth in imaging procedures is far lower when patients are referred to radiologists by treating physicians (with no financial interest in the radiology practice) than when nonradiologists self-refer. An appropriate increase in imaging services, when competently performed and interpreted, may lead to better quality of care, increased access to care and a decrease in health care costs.
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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.