Radiologist Professional Payments After Mitigation of CMS's Multiple-Procedure Payment Reduction Initiatives

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the potential impact of ACR evidence-based advocacy on radiologist professional reimbursement from individual-provider CMS multiple-procedure payment reduction (MPPR) initiatives.

Methods: CMS Physician and Other Supplier Public Use Files and 5% research-identifiable file carrier claims files from 2012 through 2014 were used to identify individual-provider MPPR-eligible services for radiologists (group practice linking unavailability in either dataset precluded quantification of different provider discounting) and then compare actual payments to Medicare Physician Fee Schedule national professional reimbursement rates to identify MPPR-discounted services. Payments attributed to MPPR-affected services and average radiologist annual MPPR discounts were calculated to estimate incremental individual radiologist payment restoration as a result of evidence-based advocacy.

Results: Between 2012 and 2014, a mean of 803 to 836 advanced imaging services per radiologist were potentially affected by individual-provider MPPR discounting. Approximately 23% of these services were discounted by individual-provider MPPR, resulting in approximately $2,524 to $2,893 lost per radiologist per year. The MPPR rollback from 25% to 5% is thus estimated to return $55 million to $64 million to radiologists each year for the individual component of MPPR alone.

Conclusions: Individual-provider MPPR discounting resulted, on average, in more than $2,500 in lost payments per radiologist per year. Its rollback, associated with ACR evidence-based advocacy efforts, is estimated to return well over $50 million in Medicare professional payments to radiologists each year for individual-component MPPR discounting alone.