The 2019 MR Market Outlook Report highlights how MR imaging procedures have reached an all-time high in the United States, reaching an estimated 42.0 million in 2019, up 8% over 39.0 million in 2018, according to a new report by IMV Medical Information Division.
This annual increase appears to have reversed a nationwide slowdown in MR procedure growth. MR procedures had been rising at a 15% average annual rate from 1998 to 2003, but then slowed to a 4% annual rate from 2004 to 2016. Then, in 2017, total MR procedures declined 8% to 36.0 million, but is back in the plus zone, growing 8% per year since 2017. This slowdown may have been influenced by the growing usage of “Appropriate Use” criteria in ordering MR procedures, which were further reinforced by a change in reporting policy from the CMS, mandating that under the PAMA (Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014), physicians are to utilize a clinical decision support system for ordering imaging studies (MR, CT, PET, and NM only) to assure appropriate use of imaging resources and to minimize over-utilization. Read more →