Medical Imaging Modernization Act of 2015

Medical Imaging Modernization Act of 2015

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to make a special rule reducing by 20% the payment under the physician fee schedule and the hospital outpatient prospective payment system for the technical component of imaging services that are x-rays taken using film.

Imaging services that are x-rays taken using computed radiography technology shall have the technical component payment: (1) for services furnished from 2018 through 2022 reduced by 7%; and (2) for services furnished during 2023 or a subsequent year reduced by 10%.

Reduced expenditures attributable to incentives to transition to digital radiography under the physician fee schedule are exempt from budget-neutrality calculation.

The Department of Health and Human Services may not apply a multiple procedure payment reduction to the professional component of imaging services furnished before it publishes, as part of the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule for a year, a empirical analysis of the Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (commonly known as the "RBRVS") Data Manager information used to determine what, if any, efficiencies exist within the professional component of imaging services when two or more studies are performed on the same patient on the same day.

These payment reductions under the hospital outpatient prospective payment system for the transition from traditional x-ray imaging to digital radiography shall apply without regard to budget neutrality.