Up to 30% of medical imaging is considered low-value or unnecessary. That’s spend without clinical benefit to the member.

Four of the five most common low-value services among Medicare beneficiaries are radiology. Routine imaging is a primary driver of waste.

99.4% of internists report cascades of care from incidental findings. Unnecessary imaging triggers downstream tests, costs, and member anxiety—and 33.7% acknowledged the initial test may not have been appropriate.

Every avoidable study adds cost, radiation exposure, and member burden. Preventing it is far more effective than recovering it later.

of common low-value services in Medicare are routine radiology

Most health plans have advanced imaging covered. Radiology benefit managers gate the expensive decisions: CT, MRI, PET, through prior authorization and clinical review. Payment integrity vendors confirm that claims are coded and billed correctly.

But routine radiology sits between the two. X-ray, ultrasound, and non-cardiac nuclear medicine are low-cost and high-volume, so they fall outside the scope of RBM programs. And payment integrity validates how a claim was billed, not whether the imaging should have happened at all.

That leaves a large category of spend essentially unmanaged. Routine Radiology Management closes the gap.

Routine Radiology Management applies evidence-based clinical policies to routine imaging claims in the outpatient setting prior to payment.

We focus on the high-volume, automatable imaging that other programs leave behind.

  • X-ray (radiography)
  • Ultrasound (sonography)
  • Non-cardiac nuclear medicine
  • Outpatient setting only
  • CT, MRI, PET, or cardiac nuclear medicine
  • Inpatient, emergency, or observational settings