radiology cost control - reimbursement per read going down

[zzz1]

Just curious with all the talk about controlling the escalating cost of medical imaging procedures, I wonder if there will be concrete plans for medicare, 3rd party insurance companies to start paying less per procedure/study?

My question is how would this trend impact the radiology field in the future? I know in the past people have compensated by reading more images faster in a day. But there is got to be a limit to how many tests one can read in a day... you can not keep reading faster and faster indefinitely. And if rates per read keeps going down, what does that leaves the compensation for rads?

Just a thought, and I will be glad to hear your opinion on this.

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[Docxter]

Just curious with all the talk about controlling the escalating cost of medical imaging procedures, I wonder if there will be concrete plans for medicare, 3rd party insurance companies to start paying less per procedure/study?

My question is how would this trend impact the radiology field in the future? I know in the past people have compensated by reading more images faster in a day. But there is got to be a limit to how many tests one can read in a day... you can not keep reading faster and faster indefinitely. And if rates per read keeps going down, what does that leaves the compensation for rads?

Just a thought, and I will be glad to hear your opinion on this.

Not much thought needed. As you said, there is a limit to efficiency. When reimbursement goes down, earnings will go down. As simple as that.

 

[UnderDoc]

J
My question is how would this trend impact the radiology field in the future?...

Just a thought, and I will be glad to hear your opinion on this.

It will provide a greater impetus for radiologists to seek ways to offload studies with low reimbursement:time ratios to foreign teleradiologists and/or diagnostic radiology paraprofessionals and concentrate on the more cutting-edge studies w/ greater reimbursement potential. What with the over-utilization of high-end imaging procedures in ED's these days, this should not be a problem. The unfortunate paradox is that radiologists may indirectly benefit from all those blood-sucking lawyers and overly-litigious patients out there - the more medicine is practiced as an exercise in CYA, the more unwarranted expensive radiologic studies get ordered. Reducing the liability burden on clinicians, especially ER docs, could negatively impact the radiologist's bottom line.

 

[rs2006]

Hi everyone

I am a student considering switching into rads later on and I was wondering if anyone here knows whether the issue of cost containment in rads has already come up in the past (is this an old issue?) or is this something active as I know most other fields have undergone HUGE changes in their compensation schemes during the late 80s and early 90s. Also, does anyone anticipate any changes to the radiology reimbursement scheme in the not so distant future? Any thoughts would be more than appreciated and thanks in advance!!