Radiology Update 2013-Things Are Looking Up after 7 Lean Years!

摘要

I began writing regular editorials for the AJR 10 years ago, delivering frequent policy briefings on what I believed were either topics of critical importance to radiologists or highlighting a more pressing issue that I thought needed attention from our leadership societies and the readership at large. I tried to bring matters to attention that were otherwise being ignored (or potentially missed until it was too late) because knowing what awaited us was better than being blindsided.With the passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 on New Year's Day 2013, I was reminded of how much attention imaging has been receiving by our federal government over the past 7 years. Although the news media would easily link the federal budget deficit to Medicare costs and sustainability, Congress in turn was looking to radiology to come up with dollars to pay for the costs of any program or tax cut that was in their constituents' interest. Although there was very little substantive health care legislation in this most recent act (it was, after all, mostly a tax bill), CT and MRI reimbursement took an additional hit (coming in 2014).