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- Posted March 10, 2025
New Medicare Rules Aim to Cut Radiation Exposure From CT Scans
Hospitals and imaging centers are now required to track and report radiation exposure from CT scans under new Medicare regulations.
The rules, which began rolling out in January, come as researchers raise concerns that excessive CT scan radiation may contribute to cancer risk.
Used to diagnose conditions ranging from cancer to heart disease, CT scans expose patients to varying levels of radiation, with some receiving 10 to 15 times more radiation than others for the same condition.
“It’s unfathomable,” Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a professor at the University of California-San Francisco medical school, told NBC News. “We keep doing more and more CTs, and the doses keep going up.”
One CT scan can expose a patient to 10 or 15 times as much radiation as another, she added.
“There is very large variation, and the doses vary by an order of magnitude -- tenfold, not 10% different -- for patients seen for the same clinical problem,” Smith-Bindman said.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented the new requirements to improve consistency in CT scan radiation doses and ensure safer imaging practices. The new guidelines require hospitals and imaging centers to collect and share more information about the radiation their scanners emit.
They also require a better evaluation on whether doses are necessary and appropriate.
Providers must comply by 2027 or risk financial penalties under Medicare.
The requirements are being phased in over three years, and not all providers are required to comply immediately.
Every year, more than 93 million CT scans are performed in the U.S., with more than half done on people 60 and older, according to IMV, a medical market research firm.
While the cancer risk from a single CT scan is low, exposure can increase over time.
A 2009 study estimated that CT scans could contribute to 2% of all cancer cases -- a number experts suspect may be even higher today as scan rates have increased.
What's more, older individuals may face even greater cancer risks because of imaging they had earlier in life.
Leah Binder, CEO of The Leapfrog Group, a company that monitors hospital safety, welcomed the new rules.
“Radiation exposure is a very serious patient safety issue, so we commend CMS for focusing on CT scans,” Binder told NBC News.
The American College of Radiology (ACR) initially criticized the CMS plan but has since agreed to work with Alara Imaging, a company providing free software to help track these CT scan doses.
Dr. Max Wintermark, a neuroradiologist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who has contributed to research on appropriate use of imaging, welcomed the new CMS regulations.
“I think the measures will help accelerate the transition towards always lower and lower doses,” he said. “They are helpful.”
More information
Harvard Health has more on radiation risk from medical imaging.
SOURCE: NBC News, March 8, 2025
