Figures revealed medical imaging volume per fee-for-service beneficiary declined 2.5 percent from 2009 to 2010. This decline followed cumulative growth in the volume of imaging from 2000 to 2009 totaling 85 percent.
The MedPAC report (pdf) confirms numbers the independent Congressional agency projected late last year.
The decline comes as physicians are voicing concerns about “diagnostic tests that are ordered without an understanding of how the results could change patient treatment” and there is an increase in recent media coverage of overuse of services, including imaging, according to the MedPAC report.
Another study commissioned by MedPAC — currently in progress — is considering the extent to which certain diagnostic services are repeated, including three imaging services: echocardiography, imaging stress tests and chest CT.
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