Updates to the ACR Appropriateness Criteria, PFCC Animations for Men’s Health Awareness Month, new ACR advocacy curriculum and more.
The College released an update to its Appropriateness Criteria in April, introducing a total of 17 topics that are either new or revised, including two new first-of-their-kind neuroradiology topics that focus on vision loss and eye disorders. New topics include Horner syndrome, male breast cancer screening and acute left upper quadrant pain. Revised topics include hematospermia, female breast cancer screening and first trimester vaginal bleeding.
Read the entire list of new and revised topics.
The ACR Commission on Patient- and Family-Centered Care (PFCC) has created several informative videos for healthcare providers to review and consider sharing with their patients during Men’s Health Awareness Month in June.
An article published in the JACR® focused on a health system based in Wisconsin that utilized an electronic health record tool to increase mammography uptake. Emplify Health, which owns 11 hospitals, has seen breast cancer screening at 64% among Medicare patients, down 22% from the average of 86%. Rates for uninsured patients are at 61%.
Emplify decided to turn to Epic Campaigns, a program that allows radiology providers to contact patients en masse through the patient’s preferred method of contact. A sample of this method showed success. Epic searched for women who either had Medicaid or were uninsured in the age range of 40 to 74 and found 5,336 patients. Thirteen percent of these patients who were overdue for a mammogram came in to get the procedure done within six months of getting a notification to schedule an appointment.
The College recently released the ACR Advocacy Curriculum, which aims not only to show radiologists why advocacy is so crucial in the field but also how they can improve their advocacy skills. This curriculum will help radiologists improve skills such as communication, branding and leadership to become more effective advocates. ACR was built on strong advocacy efforts by its members, and the College hopes this material will inspire future advocacy efforts to better the specialty and patient care.
After years of advocacy efforts from radiologists and others, the Medicare program began covering CT-based colorectal cancer screenings (CPT® code 74263) this year. CMS issued this transmittal on March 20, 2025, stressing all coinsurance and deductibles should be waived. Coverage for screening CT colonography without out-of-pocket expense by patients will be retroactive back to Jan. 1, 2025. Medicare Administrative Contractors will have until July 1 to comply with this change.
CMS usually issues its National Coverage Determinations every quarter and is expected to publish educational materials regarding reimbursement and coding details soon. In January, the College released a radio public service announcement campaign to inform Medicare beneficiaries that screening CT colonography would be covered. In patients under the age of 50, colorectal cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in men and the second most common cause of cancer death in women. So, early detection is critical to improve survival.
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