The era of rapid growth for the advanced imaging industry may have come to an end.
A new report has found that volume of advanced imaging services delivered to Medicare beneficiaries decreased in 2009 for the first time in 11 years.
It was only a small drop — 0.1 percent compared to the prior year — but another number from the report may signal looming headwinds for the imaging industry: Overall imaging services (not just “advanced”) dropped by 7.1 percent over the same time period, according to the report, which was performed by Washington, D.C.-based research group The Moran Company. The company analyzed Medicare claims data from 1999 to 2009.
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“It’s pretty clear the era of very rapid growth in advanced medical imaging seems to have come to an end at this point in time,” Don Moran, the company’s president told AuntMinnie.com. “All the data point to a leveling. It’s unclear whether we will see further declines, but the prior growth of these modalities and the advantages they offer to clinicians seems to be peaking.”
Spending grew, 1.2 percent for advanced imaging and 2.6 percent for imaging overall, but the sector was among “the slowest growing segments of the physician fee schedule in 2009,” Moran said — another sign that the industry is losing steam.
Industry insiders attributed the decline in the volume of advanced imaging — think CT, MRI, and PET scans, for example — to cuts of reimbursement rates for imaging services. And more cuts are on the way, thanks to federal health reform legislation passed last year, according to Aunt Minnie.
Industry insiders warned that advanced imaging’s declining volume could spell access problems for patients in need of imaging services. (And it probably won’t help industry executives’ bank accounts much, either.)
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“Additional cuts to Medicare reimbursements threaten to continue the current trajectory and further restrict patient access to life-saving diagnostic tools and screening services,” said Tim Trysla, executive director of the Access to Medical Imaging Coalition, which released the report.
