WASHINGTON, April 11, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — In
response to Thursday’s Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
(MedPAC) recommendation that medical practitioners who use
substantially higher levels of advanced diagnostic imaging services
receive Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approval
before being able to provide those services, the Imaging e-Ordering
Coalition encourages Medicare officials to instead look to existing
clinical decision support tools to reduce costs, increase
efficiency, support appropriate use, and improve quality of care in
diagnostic imaging.
“By referencing proven imaging clinical decision support
systems, physicians are able to quickly and effectively recommend
the most appropriate course of treatment for their patient at the
point of order, rather than having to rely upon prior authorization
in advance of treatment,” said Liz Quam, co-founder of the Imaging
e-Ordering Coalition, representing leading healthcare providers,
technology companies, and diagnostic imaging vendors. “Not only is
this approach more efficient for patient care delivery, its
provision of immediate clinical feedback and alternative imaging
suggestions based on established medical professional society
appropriateness guidelines encourages informed decision-making and
significantly lowers administrative costs.”
MedPAC’s recommendation – which targets the top 10 percent
of providers who account for more than half of imaging services
– was opposed by Commissioner Ronald Castellanos, M.D., who
represents physician specialists on the panel. In his dissent,
Castellanos noted that CMS does not have a structure in place to
implement prior authorization, and that MedPAC should not institute
such a policy that would be burdensome to both physicians and
beneficiaries.
With the use of clinical decision support systems, once a
physician requests an imaging procedure, specific clinical
indicators are identified within the patie
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