The mission of the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute® is to establish foundational evidence for health policy and radiology practice that promotes the effective and efficient use of health care resources and improves patient care.
A new study from the Neiman Institute found that the time between an imaging scan and its interpretation for office/hospital outpatient imaging increased 27% between 2023 and 2024. The study, based on 2.9 million office/hospital outpatient Medicare imaging studies, published in JACR, was an update to previous HPI study of turnaround times through 2023. Read More
A new HPI study reveals a substantial decline in DXA testing among Medicare beneficiaries that was greatest in certain underserved groups. The findings raise concerns about missed opportunities to diagnose osteoporosis and prevent fractures and associated costs. The study analyzed nearly two decades of Medicare claims data from more than 5 million beneficiaries and found that use of DXA fell by 35% over the study period. Read More
A new study from the Neiman Institute found that the persistent declines in Medicare physician reimbursement are associated with widening disparities in access to care, with patients in rural communities, low-income areas, and disadvantaged neighborhoods falling further behind their more urban, affluent, and advantaged counterparts. The study, based on 4.7 million unique patients over the 2005-2023 period, was published in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing. Read More
A new study published in the American Journal of Neuroradiology finds that adoption of artificial intelligence software for detecting large vessel occlusion in acute ischemic stroke when billed through Medicare's New Technology Add-On Payment program has grown but remains uneven, with use concentrated in larger, specialized hospitals and varying geographically. Read More
Radiologists performing no interventional radiology-related work increased from one-third in 2008 to one-half in 2023. These findings, based on a national Medicare analysis of 46,533 radiologists covering 476,688 radiologist years from 2008 to 2023 period, were published in the JVIR by the HPI in collaboration with IR experts. Read More
An artificial intelligence algorithm for pulmonary embolism detection demonstrated high concordance with radiologist interpretations in a large, real-world study published today in Radiology: Artificial Intelligence. Read More
A new study from the Neiman Institute found that the introduction of PET-based Gallium-68 DOTATATE/DOTATOC radiotracers for imaging neuroendocrine tumors created substantial differences in patient access during its first four years of use. Compared with the older imaging agent, Indium-111 pentetreotide (Octreoscan™), patients in small town-rural areas traveled 134.9 additional miles on average to access Gallium-68 DOTATATE/DOTATOC. The study, published in JACR, analyzed 3,365 claims for neuroendocrine tumor radiotracers. Read More
