Key Findings of the Lewin Group
By Leslie Champlin
Posted: 4/8/2005, 3:16 a.m.
- Imaging grew more slowly than all Medicare Part B services between 2001 and 2003 and accounted for 16 percent of the growth in all Medicare Part B services between 1999 and 2003.
- Expanding the applications of diagnostic imaging has contributed to the growth in these services and is generally safer than the more invasive techniques they are replacing.
- Self-referral is not the key driver of growth; some of the highest-growing areas of diagnostic imaging are controlled by radiologists who do not self-refer.
- Research and experience have shown that, with proper training, cardiologists and other specialists can adequately perform certain diagnostic imaging services.
- Any policy restrictions limiting the use of ultrasound by specialists will be frustrated by the fact that radiologists currently are in short supply and that most are working at capacity.
