ACR Adopts Resolution to Stem Overutilization of Imaging Services
During the 2005 ACR Annual Meeting and Chapter Leadership Conference, the ACR Council passed a resolution (Substitute Resolution 2) reaffirming the ACR's staunch opposition to the practice of self-referral and instructing the College's Government Relations Department to navigate within the current political climate to seek legislative or regulatory solutions that would reduce overutilization of all imaging services. Substitute Resolution 2 in essence formalized the yearlong efforts of the Government Relations and Economics and Health Policy departments to pursue policies that would allow Medicare beneficiaries to continue to receive the safest, highest quality medical imaging from those who are the most properly trained to provide those services.
A special morning and evening session of the Council was convened to allow ACR leaders the opportunity to fully debate and discuss the most viable options available. At the end of these discussions, a compromise resolution was voted on and approved by the Council. In addition to instructing the College's government relations and economics staff to continue to pursue solutions to reducing overutilization, the resolution called for the addition of "at least 4 new members" to be appointed to the Government Relations Commission. These new members would draft, examine, and reexamine all possible legislative and regulatory options available to stem the rise in imaging utilization.
The ACR's latest policy allows it to support and pursue innovative solutions to the problem of image overutilization such as the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's (MedPAC) recommendations published on March 1, 2005. MedPAC's recommendations urge Congress to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to set standards for physicians who bill Medicare for interpreting diagnostic medical imaging studies, and set standards for providers who bill Medicare for performing these studies. Recently the College testified before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health in support of these recommendations. James Borgstede, MD, FACR, Chair, ACR Board of Chancellors, presented this testimony (see related article on page 3 of this issue). Borgstede's testimony can also be found on the ACR Web site at www.acr.org by clicking "Advocacy and ACRa" and then clicking "Congressional Relations."