How do you imagine the 2007 Medicare proposed changes for payment for imaging services will affect the ability of hospitals to provide quality cancer care?
A. I think at this point in time we need to wait and see what is published in the final rule of the Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System for 2007. Medicare has published the proposed changes to the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment for 2007 and is accepting public comments through October 10, 2006. The comments will be taken under consideration by CMS and they will publish the final rule in early November. Rather than speculate on what might happen under the proposed rule, I think it is prudent to wait until the final rule is published. At that time we will know what the payments will actually be in 2007 for PET and PET/CT scans and only then will we know what the true playing field will be for hospitals.
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