The Economics of Breast Imaging: Challenges and Strategies for Survival‪.‬

Breast-imaging services frequently lose money for radiology practices. When the costs of performing and interpreting these studies exceed reimbursement rates, breast imaging must be subsidized by other areas of the practice. This problem took root in the late 1980s when cost was seen as a barrier to utilization of screening. (1) Several studies had shown that screening mammography could be performed for $50 when batch reading was used. (2,3) Based on such published data, the 1992 Medicare reimbursement rate for screening mammography was set at $56.76. (4) This decision meant that facilities that could not feasibly implement batch interpretation would lose money on screening mammography. Medicare made the financial problem even worse by simultaneously setting the reimbursement rate for diagnostic mammography at only $63.24, only 11 % higher than the rate for screening, even though interpretation of a diagnostic study takes 5 times as long as a screening study.