Medicare Announces Demonstration Testing Decision Support Systems For Advanced Medical Imaging Services

CMS announced today that it is soliciting proposals for participation in the Medicare Imaging Demonstration (MID). 

The two-year demonstration will assess the impact that DSSs used by physician practices have on the appropriateness and utilization of advanced medical imaging services ordered for the Medicare fee-for-service population.  A DSS provides immediate feedback based on current medical specialty guidelines to the physician on the appropriateness of the test ordered for the patient.  In addition, the demonstration will focus on magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, and nuclear medicine advanced imaging diagnostic services.

CMS will use “conveners” to reach eligible physicians interested in participating in the demonstration.  Conveners will be responsible for recruiting physician practices, deploying a DSS that incorporates medical specialty society guidelines for the selected procedures, ensuring the DSS remains current with those guidelines, collecting and transmitting data, and distributing payments to practices for reporting data.  Conveners and physician practices will be paid for reporting complete data necessary to determine the appropriateness of the test.

Eleven advanced imaging procedures — Spect MPI, MRI lumbar spine, CT lumbar spine, MRI brain, CT brain, CT sinus, CT thorax, CT abdomen, CT pelvis, MRI Knee, and MRI shoulder — will be included in the demonstration. 

Applications are due to CMS by September 21, 2010.