Journal of the National Cancer Institute Advance Access originally published online on November 25, 2008
JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2008 100(23):1665-1667; doi:10.1093/jnci/djn430
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
© Oxford University Press 2008.
NEWS |
Rising Costs of Medical Imaging Spur Debate
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Medicare spending on medical imaging services reached $14 billion in 2006, more than double the 2000 spending, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released in June. The GAO also found that the proportion of spending on imaging services performed in physician offices rose from 58% to 64%, whereas the proportion of spending on imaging performed in hospitals dropped from 35% to 25% over that same period.
This shift from hospitals to outpatient settings, along with a substantial variation in spending per beneficiary in different regions of the country, has raised concerns that not all of the imaging being done is medically necessary, according to the report. The GAO recommended that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) manage the rising costs by implementing practices used by private health plans, such as requiring prior authorization.
Although many agree that spending on medical imaging has indeed risen
The GAO Report
Different Solutions
Cost-effectiveness
Benefits