AMA votes to stand against imaging services clampdown

Radiologists, however, plan to lobby Congress for restrictions on who can provide such scans.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. July 11, 2005.

Chicago -- Increasing evidence that lawmakers, regulators and insurers are set on reining in spending on medical imaging has prompted the American Medical Association to take a stand, but not all physicians are happy about the new position.

Delegates at the AMA Annual Meeting in June passed a resolution calling on the Association to oppose efforts by any payer to control utilization of any medical service unless policy-makers can prove that the move will improve quality without interfering with patient access. The new policy also directs the group to reject any proposal to restrict payment for imaging services based on physician specialty and to review with specialty groups any criteria on patient care that may emerge from public debate.

Rising federal costs in this area have set off alarms in Congress and at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which are looking to control the spending and determine whether growing use of these tests is necessary. CMS estimated in a recent report that Medicare expenditures for advanced scans, such as magnetic resonance imaging, rose more than 25% between 2003 and 2004, more than twice the increase from the previous year.

Many physicians testified that any attempts by Congress and private payers to curb spending on imaging services and restrict the tests to credentialed specialists would be an assault on what they view as appropriate freedom of practice when ordering x-rays, sonograms and other scans.