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Examinations of Medical-Imaging Sector...Raise Major Questions
Colleagues,
As reported in the New York Times...More than 95 million high-tech scans are done each year, and medical imaging, including CT, M.R.I. and PET scans, has ballooned into a $100-billion-a-year industry in the United States, with Medicare paying for $14 billion of that. But recent studies show that as many as 20 percent to 50 percent of the procedures should never have been done because their results did not help diagnose ailments or treat patients.
“The system is just totally, totally broken,” said Dr. Vijay Rao, the chairwoman of the radiology department at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, in Philadelphia...
So what are the problems?
- Bad scans...medical experts say poor quality scans are part of a growing problem with medical imaging.
- Insurers pay the same for a scan done on a 10-year-old machine as one on the latest model, though the differences in the images can be significant ... Ten years ago, the age of a scanner might not have mattered so much. Now, said Dr. Gary Glazer, the chairman of radiology at Stanford, technology has advanced so much that the older scanner “is not the same machine.”
- Insurers do not distinguish between scans that are done poorly or done well or read by less- or more-qualified doctors. Aside from mammography ... the field is largely unregulated.
- Increasingly doctors refer patients to scanning centers they own and profit from ... many centers are not accredited, although the percentage is not known because there is no national registry of imaging centers.
- Accrediting will be partly addressed by a little noticed aspect of a wide-ranging Medicare law passed last year. After it goes into effect in 2012, Medicare will pay only for scans done at accredited centers.
- But imaging experts say the law fixes only part of the problem. High-tech scanning is complicated, and there is no consensus on objective measures to ensure quality.
Read on at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/health/02scans.html?_r=1&hp
ENJOY!
CC
As reported in the New York Times...More than 95 million high-tech scans are done each year, and medical imaging, including CT, M.R.I. and PET scans, has ballooned into a $100-billion-a-year industry in the United States, with Medicare paying for $14 billion of that. But recent studies show that as many as 20 percent to 50 percent of the procedures should never have been done because their results did not help diagnose ailments or treat patients.
“The system is just totally, totally broken,” said Dr. Vijay Rao, the chairwoman of the radiology department at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, in Philadelphia...
So what are the problems?
- Bad scans...medical experts say poor quality scans are part of a growing problem with medical imaging.
- Insurers pay the same for a scan done on a 10-year-old machine as one on the latest model, though the differences in the images can be significant ... Ten years ago, the age of a scanner might not have mattered so much. Now, said Dr. Gary Glazer, the chairman of radiology at Stanford, technology has advanced so much that the older scanner “is not the same machine.”
- Insurers do not distinguish between scans that are done poorly or done well or read by less- or more-qualified doctors. Aside from mammography ... the field is largely unregulated.
- Increasingly doctors refer patients to scanning centers they own and profit from ... many centers are not accredited, although the percentage is not known because there is no national registry of imaging centers.
- Accrediting will be partly addressed by a little noticed aspect of a wide-ranging Medicare law passed last year. After it goes into effect in 2012, Medicare will pay only for scans done at accredited centers.
- But imaging experts say the law fixes only part of the problem. High-tech scanning is complicated, and there is no consensus on objective measures to ensure quality.
Read on at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/health/02scans.html?_r=1&hp
ENJOY!
CC
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