Medicare proposes a 50% cut for some imaging fees in 2012

The proposed 2012 physician fee schedule released July 1 paints a gloomy picture for doctors participating in Medicare. CMS is required by statute to implement the across-the-board cut unless Congress steps in to prevent it. But the agency also would expand its multiple procedure payment reduction policy to physicians who interpret the results of certain advanced diagnostic imaging scans. CMS already reduces what it pays for the technical component of the procedures when multiple scans are provided to the same patient on the same day. Now the agency is proposing to extend the reduction to the professional component, which would affect rates for the doctors interpreting the images. So a physician who interprets more than one MRI or CT scan taken of the same patient during the same visit, for instance, would see a 50% reduction in pay for interpreting the second and any subsequent scans. CMS does warn in the proposed fee schedule that physicians interpreting multiple x-rays and ultrasounds for the same patient visit may receive reduced payments, possibly starting in 2013. Diagnostic services offered by certain specialties, such as cardiology, also could see payment reductions when the technical component of a test is billed at the same time as another service.