Best practice guidelines earn praise, criticism from radiology benefit managers

April 30, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. Best practice guidelines earn praise, criticism from radiology benefit managers By H.A. Abella A white paper on imaging preauthorization guidelines produced by the American College of Radiology and the Radiology Business Management Association has drawn mixed reactions, particularly among radiology benefit managers. The benefit managers agree that management programs may lack consistency and add costs. But they also worry the guidelines may weaken efforts to control imaging overutilization. Congress report predicts blitz of reimbursement cuts. In the position paper released April 16, the ACR and Radiology Business Management Association said they feared that a proliferation of radiology benefits management (RBM) programs is turning into bureaucratic overkill. Rather than cutting overhead costs to payers, referring physicians, and radiologists, RBMs might be adding to them, according to the ACR/RBMA white paper. The authors responded with a list of best practices defining when and how imaging preauthorization makes sense.

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