Budget Bill Caps Payment for Office-based Imaging as of 2007

A provision of the federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 limits reimbursement for imaging services performed in a physician office to the lesser of the hospital outpatient or the physician office payment schedule. This means that physician offices will be reimbursed at the hospital outpatient prospective payment system rate if that is less than the physician Medicare fee schedule payment, according to the Society for Nuclear Medicine. This applies to the technical (as opposed to the professional or interpretative) component of payment.

The change applies to molecular and nuclear imaging—including positron tomography, X-rays, ultrasounds, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, and fluoroscopy—but excludes diagnostic and screening mammography, according to the bill. The Society of Nuclear Medicine opposes this provision. President Bush signed the Deficit Reduction Act on February 8, 2006 and it takes effect January 1, 2007.