Diagnostic Imaging Services Access Protection Act Helps Preserve Care for Most Vulnerable Patients

The American College of Radiology (ACR) strongly supports the Diagnostic Imaging Services Access Protection Act (S. 1020), recently introduced by Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Ben Cardin (D-MD). This legislation would prospectively repeal the existing 25 percent Multiple Procedure Payment Reduction (MPPR) applied to Medicare reimbursement for interpretation of advanced diagnostic imaging scans performed on the same patient, in the same session, on the same day. The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) continues to ignore a mandate in the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) of 2014 (Public Law 113-93) to release data claimed to support enactment of the initial Medicare professional component MPPR in 2012. The HHS Secretary has had over 12 months to comply with this request and, to date, still has not released the data. “This Medicare cut affects care for the most sick or injured patients — such as those with massive head and body trauma, stroke or widespread cancer — who often require interpretations by different doctors to survive. Doctors should not have the financial rug pulled out from under them while caring for the most vulnerable of Medicare patients. We thank Senators Vitter and Cardin for addressing this arbitrary action that Medicare never should have taken,” said Bibb Allen Jr., MD, FACR, chair of the American College of Radiology Board of Chancellors. The MPPR implemented by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Servic...
Source: American College of Radiology - Category: Radiology Source Type: news