ACR Continues to Present New Radiology Codes and Data to RUC

ACR Presents Five CPT Codes at September 2025 RUC

ACR® recently presented five CPT® codes at the AMA/Specialty Society RVS Update Committee (RUC) meeting in Chicago from September 23–27. These codes pertained to Intraosseous Fiducial Marker Placement, Percutaneous Decompression Procedure, and Sacroiliac Joint Arthrodesis and will be addressed by CMS in the 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.

This meeting was the last meeting of the year for the RUC and ACR has begun working on preparing surveys for the January 2026 RUC meeting. We anticipate those surveys will be launched by mid-late October.

ACR collaborated with multiple specialties such as interventional radiology, vascular surgery, surgery, anesthesiology, or pain physicians, among others on the time and value recommendations for these codes. In addition to our usual ACR representation of Gregory Nicola, MD, FACR (radiology RUC Panel Member), Lauren Nicola, MD, FACR (radiology Alternate RUC Panel Member), Andrew Moriarity, MD, MBA (ACR RUC Advisor), and Michael Booker, MD, MBA (ACR Alternate RUC Advisor), ACR also had several guest attendees. Joshua Cooper (ACR Vice President, Congressional Affairs, Government Relations), Robert Smalley, MD (Pediatric radiologist at Brooke Army Medical Center), and Aytekin Oto, MD (Chief Physician at the University of Chicago Physicians) were first-time observers of the RUC process, while Ben Northrup, MD (Radiologist at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology) served as clinical expert and primary presenter for the new intraosseous fiducial marker placement codes.

April 2025 RUC Meeting

ACR participated in the American Medical Association (AMA)/Specialty Society RVS Update Committee (RUC) meeting April 23–26 where they heard an update on the AMA’s Physician Practice Information Survey (PPIS).

AMA shared information from the PPIS with CMS in February. This data has the potential to influence physician reimbursement.

The ACR did not have any value-based recommendations to present at the meeting; however, radiology was well represented at the meeting. Gregory Nicola, MD, FACR served as the radiology RUC Panel Member, with Lauren Nicola, MD, FACR as the radiology Alternate RUC Panel Member. Andrew Moriarity, MD, the ACR RUC Advisor, was supported by Michael Booker, MD, MBA, the ACR Alternate RUC Advisor. Booker also serves on the Practice Expense Subcommittee, which is responsible for ensuring that the appropriate direct practice expenses such as clinical staff, medical supplies, and equipment are allocated to each procedure code. Also in attendance, as a guest of the ACR, was Linda Wilgus, Co-Executive Director of the Radiology Business Management Association.

The ACR anticipates working on surveys for the September 2025 RUC meeting over the next couple weeks. 

January 2025 RUC Meeting

ACR presented five code families at the meeting January 15–18. Codes in these families were addressed by CMS in the 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule.

The radiology codes presented at the meeting relate to:

• Coronary atherosclerotic plaque assessment
• Hip and pelvis arthrodesis revisions
• Irreversible electroporation of tumors
• Lower extremity revascularization
• Percutaneous decompression of median nerve

Fifty-one radiology-pertinent codes were presented, of which 46 related to lower extremity revascularization. The work of all five families involved collaborative multi-society efforts with interventional radiology, vascular surgery, urology, cardiology and surgery, among other specialties.

Andrew Moriarity, MD, ACR RUC Advisor, presented practice expense inputs for the codes and Michael Booker, MD, MBA, ACR Alternate RUC Advisor, presented physician work. Cindy Yuan, MD, PhD, RSNA RUC Advisor, also assisted in the presentations for several of these codes, on behalf of the ACR.

Gregory Nicola, MD, FACR, and Lauren Nicola, MD, FACR, represented radiology on the RUC panel. Mark DiMaggio, MD, attended as an ACR guest. Dr. DiMaggio is a 2025 ACR Moorefield Fellow and was offered the opportunity to observe the RUC process as part of the fellowship.

If you have any questions, contact Stephanie Le, ACR Director, Economic Policy.