CMA Finds Serious Problems with United Healthcare’s Imaging Accreditation Requirements
[Posted 04/14/08]

United Healthcare has announced plans to implement a new imaging accreditation program in the third quarter of 2008. Once the program is implemented, United will require accreditation as a condition for reimbursement for most imaging services performed in freestanding outpatient facilities and physician offices.

While CMA supports legitimate efforts to improve quality of care, we are concerned that this new program has significant structural deficits and is being inappropriately used as a cost saving mechanism. Among CMA’s concerns are:

• Accreditation is not available for at least two of the procedures for which accreditation is required (magnetic resonance angiography and computed tomography angiography).
• The cost of accreditation is prohibitively steep for many physician practices, particularly given the insufficient health plan payment rates in today’s marketplace.
• The information available to physicians regarding these new accreditation requirements is unclear and confusing.

“CMA believes that the significant costs, confusion, and discrepancies that surround this program will hinder access to care and unnecessarily and significantly increase physicians’ costs without improving quality or patient safety,” wrote CMA President Richard S. Frankenstein, M.D., in a letter to United’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Mills, M.D.

Click here to read CMA's letter to United on this issue.

Contact: Aileen E. Wetzel, 916/444-5532 or awetzel@cmanet.org.