On December 19, 2007, Congress passed a bill providing physicians with a 0.5 percent increase in Medicare payments for the first six months of 2008. The legislation, which was passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and passed by a 411 to 3 margin in the U.S. House, is expected to be signed into law by the President, replacing a 10.1 percent physician payment cut scheduled to occur on January 1, 2008. Thanks to the efforts of many physicians and medical societies, the legislation contains no further cuts to medical imaging.

Of further importance to nuclear cardiology, the bill also includes a continuation of the 2007 payment methodology for therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals at charges reduced to cost in the hospital outpatient setting for the first six months of 2008. As outlined in the final 2008 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS) rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a new payment policy for therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals, setting a prospective payment rate for therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals (over the $60 drug threshold) using the CMS hospital claims data derived from charges and adjusted using department-specific cost-to-charge ratios. Because the legislation only addresses therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals, CMS's decision to bundle payment for diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals and contrast agents into the ambulatory payment classification (APC) rates will be effective on January 1, 2008 in the hospital outpatient setting.