April 13, 2022
It would seem that any policy innovation that could lower healthcare costs, expand access, provide better care, and give much needed relief to overworked doctors in high-stress practices would be an easy sell. Yet sadly, legislation which would accomplish all of the above, the Medicare Access to Radiology Care Act (MARCA) now languishes in House and Senate committees like a dead letter.
To understand the importance of MARCA, it’s helpful to know that radiology is one of the most intense and stressful medical practices, ranking extremely high in physician burnout, insomnia, chronic headaches, and numerous other health issues. MARCA would allow radiologists’ highly trained assistants (RAs) to take some time-consuming and patient-centered tasks off their plate so that the doctors can focus more on their primary duties of patient care.
The current problem is that the radiologists that supervise RAs are currently not permitted to bill Medicare for non-imaging patient management services and image-guided procedures. This includes such things as sitting with patients to ensure they understand procedures and diagnoses, injecting imaging contrast, or a host of other necessities of patient care. Excluding billing for these services is needless and inefficient, as RAs are fully licensed and highly qualified to conduct both imaging and non-imaging services under the supervision of a radiologist.
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