Study finds decreases in imaging ' s share of all healthcare spending

Although medical imaging has frequently been considered a major culprit behind the growth of healthcare spending in the U.S., its share among employer-insured individuals actually decreased between 2010 and 2021, researchers have reported. In fact, imaging's part fell from 10.5% to 8.9% during the decade, according to a team led by first author Michal Horný of Emory University School of Medicine and senior author Richard Duszak, MD, of the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. What's more, "nominal spending" (i.e., the sum of payments from health plans and patients to health care providers for imaging and related services) on imaging increased 35.9% from $48.7 billion to $66.2 billion, while spending on all other healthcare services increased by 63.7%. The findings were published March 27 in Health Affairs Scholar. "[Our study] demonstrates that medical imaging has not been a predominant driver of health care spending growth from 2010 to 2021," it wrote. Healthcare spending in the U.S. increased from $2.6 trillion in 2010 to $4.3 trillion in 2021 and is expected to grow by 5.4% per year over the next decade, a rate "considered by many to be unsustainable," the authors noted. Over the years medical imaging has been considered a major contributor to increased healthcare spending, and has been subject to a variety of cost-cutting measures that have been mostly aimed at reducing Medicare and Medicaid costs. But spending growth among the employer-insured populat...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: Economics Source Type: news