Radiology benefit managers adversely affect referring physicians, study suggests
Radiology benefit managers (RBMs) — which provide prior authorization for imaging services using proprietary algorithms to determine appropriateness — shift significant costs to physicians and have the potential to either increase or decrease societal costs, according to a study in the June issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (www.jacr.org).
RBMs are widely used by private payers to manage the utilization of imaging services through prior authorization, and they have been proposed for use in the Medicare program. "We created a framework for evaluating ...

