According to the American College of Radiology (ACR), “The technical component for more than 200 imaging procedures will be cut by up to 55 percent in the final 2015 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) because of a decision to remove the direct practice expense of numerous film inputs that affected their reimbursement rates in favor of the cost of acquiring a desktop computer.” The decreased reimbursement is sizable for such procedures as myelography, CTA and a variety of ultrasound studies. The ACR’s analysis was released in their recent eNews article Analog to Digital Conversion to Cost Radiologists. The article includes helpful impact tables showing the specific change in radiology reimbursement rates between 2014 and 2015 for each CPT code.
The changes cited by the ACR are the result of Medicare’s attempt to recognize that most practices today use digital PACS technology rather than film. They removed the costs associated with film production and storage, but replaced those costs with only the value of $2,501 to represent a typical radiology reading station. No recognition was given to the overall cost of installing and maintaining the central PACS hardware and software. The ACR reports that, as an example, CPT 76377 (3D Post-processing of tomographic modality) receives a 45.7% reduction for film-based costs offset by a gain of only 1.7% when the desktop computer is substituted.
The Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) for 2015 sets the allowed fees for radiation therapy centers at a 1% increase, while radiation oncology professional services will remain unchanged. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had originally proposed drastic cuts in both the professional and technical components but instead elected to defer any decision on assumptions related to major practice expense categories while additional data is gathered. 
