Medical imaging launches campaign against cuts

Advocates for the medical imaging industry are launching a campaign to highlight the technology’s value during a time of rising healthcare cuts.

The Medical Imaging and Technology Alliance (MITA) said that the multi-platform effort will put a “long overdue spotlight” on how imaging has lowered healthcare costs by minimizing unnecessary procedures.

{mosads}”Patients and physicians benefit from advanced medical imaging technologies that save lives while reducing long-term healthcare spending,” said MITA Executive Director Gail Rodriguez in a statement.

“Thanks to the investments made by manufacturers in research and development, for example, almost no one has to undergo exploratory surgery.”

The campaign comes as lawmakers look for ways to pay for overhauling Medicare’s flawed physician payment system.

Top committees have rallied behind a legislative framework, but finding offsets for the bill’s estimated $138 billion in cost is proving difficult.

Congress’s inability to pass permanent reform in the near term will likely lead to another sustainable growth rate patch at the end of March.

That bill will require a smaller set of pay-fors that have healthcare industry players concerned.

MITA emphasized that Medicare imaging reimbursements have seen multiple cuts since 2006 and that manufacturers will pay a 2.3 device excise tax under ObamaCare.

The tax poses a “serious threat to manufacturers’ ability not only to invest in innovation, but also to drive job creation,” the group said in a memo.