NASHVILLE, Feb. 7 /PRNewswire/ --
HealthLeaders-InterStudy, a leading
provider of managed care industry intelligence, finds that health plans are
taking steps to rein in the cost of radiology. According to findings in the
recent Health Plan Data and Analysis reports, while prescription drug costs
and hospital-payer contracts have received the most attention in the past
five years, radiology costs have been growing at a remarkable rate.
"Radiology accounts for only 10 cents of each medical dollar spent by
health plans," according to HealthLeaders Research Market Analyst Jane
DuBose. "But the segment is growing by 18% to 20% a year. In contrast, interventions
in prescription drug management by health plans have slowed the growth rate
of pharmaceutical costs to below 10% in some cases."
To battle the issues of duplication and overuse of expensive imaging,
health plans are using precertification and radiology copays and dictating
guidelines for physicians. Health plans may also require that imaging
studies be performed according to guidelines from the American College of Radiology
or other organizations.
Demographic trends and continued technological advances will also mean higher utilization in the future; cardiac imaging expected to be one of the next big areas of medicine.
HealthLeaders-InterStudy, a newly formed company of Decision Resources, Inc., is the authoritative source for managed care data, analysis, and news. For more information, please visit both Web sites at http://www.HealthLeaders.com and http://www.InterStudyPublications.com.
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