ACR Members Weigh In on Rhode Island MRI Legislation
Two ACR members offered mixed reactions to the Rhode Island legislature's recent approval of a bill that sets higher standards for MRI devices used in the state. However, the same bill also makes it easier for parties to set up "smaller, cheaper MRI machines in their offices and get paid as much as hospitals," according to a July 16 article in the Providence Business News.
The new law, effective Jan 1, provides for payment of MRIs performed at any ACR-accredited facility or "an alternate nationally recognized accrediting organization" that offers standards "substantially similar to and no less stringent than" those of the College.
ACR member Mark S. Ridlen, MD, of Rhode Island Medical Imaging and president of the state's radiology society, said in the article that his group was "pretty happy" with the legislation, calling it "fair and important for patient safety and quality as time goes forward."
However, ACR Fellow John J. Cronan, MD, head of diagnostic imaging at Rhode Island Hospital, was a little more restrained in his response to the new state guidelines. While acknowledging that the tighter rules are "a step forward," he says they are the "bare-minimum" to assure patients that their MRIs are performed correctly. However, he added, as MRI machines proliferate in the state there is a "real risk to the finances of hospitals, especially, and the fight cannot end here."
"Now it's up to the hospitals really to lead the charge," he said in the article. "MRIs are the number 1 or number 2 revenue source for hospitals. My understanding is that all the hospitals are seeing a significant erosion of their outpatient volume."
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