Self-Interpretation of Imaging by Non-Radiologists Accounts for 43.5 Percent of Medicare Imaging Claims

Diagnostic Imaging April 3, 2025
Jeff Hall

In a review of over 1,630,000 office-based non-breast imaging Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) claims from 2022, researchers found that 39.5 percent of nuclear medicine imaging were interpreted by ordering clinicians.

Over half of claims for radiography and fluoroscopy, over half of claims for ultrasound and nearly 40 percent of claims for nuclear medicine were self-interpreted by non-radiologists, according to a new study of Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) non-breast imaging claims from 2022.

For the retrospective study, recently published in the American Journal of Roentgenology, researchers reviewed claims for imaging performed for 1,632,212 Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries, and compared rates of self-interpretation by non-radiologists, within-practice interpretation, and radiologist interpretation.

Overall, the study authors found that self-interpretation of imaging by ordering providers occurred 43.6 percent...

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