Ratcheting down imaging costs

Health plans have been somewhat slow in trying to bring diagnostic imaging costs under control. But there's a move under way to require prior approval for outpatient CT and MRI scans. It harkens back to the bad old days of managed care but with the amount of money at stake it's surprising we haven't seen more. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin is the latest health plan to announce this policy, according to the Business Journal of Milwaukee. They will be using American Imaging Management (AIM) to help on this front.Mostly, the plans will disallow requests that don't conform to American College of Radiology guidelines. Physicians could save themselves the trouble by following the guidelines themselves or relying on a system such as SafeMed that can support their decision making and keep the AIM folks off their backs.