IMPACT OF MR-IMAGING ON NATIONWIDE HEALTH-CARE COSTS AND COMPARISON WITH OTHER IMAGING PROCEDURES

OBJECTIVE. We wished to determine the extent to which MR imaging contr ibutes to the overall costs of imaging in the United States and to com pare MR imaging costs with other imaging techniques. MATERIALS AND MET HODS. All 23 current procedural terminology, version 4 (CPT4) codes fo r MR imaging were extracted from the national 1993 Part B Medicare ann ual data reimbursement file. For each code, we calculated total Medica re physician reimbursements. Aggregate reimbursement for all MR imagin g was compared with aggregate reimbursement for all 659 imaging-relate d current procedural terminology, version 4 codes and also with compar able figures for echocardiography and other categories of cardiovascul ar imaging. RESULTS. Within the 23 MR imaging codes, 1,449,911 examina tions were performed on Medicare patients in 1993, for which physician s were reimbursed $370 million. Medicare reimbursement of physicians f or all 659 imaging-related procedures was $5.3 billion. Thus, MR imagi ng accounted for only 7% of all imaging costs. By comparison, a group of just 10 imaging codes, which are primarily cardiovascular in nature , accounted for $1.67 billion, or 32% of the entire Part B costs for i maging. Reimbursements for echocardiography alone are more than twice those for MR imaging. CONCLUSION. From the national perspective, MR im aging does not appear to warrant its reputation as a costly procedure. The costs of echocardiography and other imaging related to the cardio vascular system are considerably higher.