Bipartisan duo fights proposals to curb medical imaging

The top Republican and Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Health panel are pushing back against proposals to curb medical imaging tests paid by Medicare, arguing that they could restrict access to "life-saving medical tools."

In a letter to the chairman of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), Reps. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) and Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) request that scheduled imaging payment cuts be allowed to go into effect before new restrictions are considered. In April MedPAC voted to submit clinicians who order large numbers of such tests to prior authorization, a recommendation that's expected to be included in the commission's June report to Congress.

"MedPAC views medical imaging as a major driver of Medicare expenditure growth," the letter to Glenn Hackbarth says. "Today, we must question the validity of that claim."

Separately, the comptroller general on Tuesday announced the appointment of two new MedPAC members and the reappointment of three others.

The newly appointed members are: Willis Gradison, a Scholar in Residence in the Health Sector Management Program at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business; and William Hall, a geriatrician and Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine.

Reappointed were Rush University Medical Center COO Peter Butler; Harvard Medical School professor Michael Chernew; and First Diversity Management Group COO George Miller.

Their terms will expire in 2014.

This post was published at 12:55 p.m. and updated at 1:30 p.m. with the names of the new MedPAC appointees.