CT, MRI and PET scans are a $100 billion-a-year industry, with more than 95 million high-tech scans performed annually. Medicare pays $14 billion of this amount. Recent studies have also shown that 20-50 percent of scans were unnecessary as they did not help in diagnosing ailments or in treating patients.
According to many physicians interviewed by the Times, bad scans are a growing problem in this field. Most insurers will pay the same amount for scans regardless of the equipment used, meaning that an MRI performed on a brand-new machine will cost the same as one performed on a machine that is 10 years old. This is a problem as technology has quickly advanced during this time.
Other issues include the lack of accreditation for imaging centers and the wide variety in the quality of scans that radiologists encounter. In 2012, Medicare will only pay for scans performed at accredited centers, but, until then, the best patients can do is question the need for a scan and the quality and accreditation of the center.
The article also mentioned growing concerns about doctors who profit from requesting scans on equipment they own. The GAO reported that nearly two-thirds of the money that Medicare paid was for imaging performed in doctor’s offices.
