CMS measure on CT scan use questioned

The Annals of Emergency Medicine has released a report showing that the CMS new image efficiency measure for use of tomography for headaches in the emergency department is “is not reliable, valid or accurate and may produce misleading information about hospital ED performance.”

The study can be found here. The measure uses Medicare billing records to determine the clinical appropriateness of CT scans. The report shows contrary evidence based on research performed at 21 hospitals examining the medical records of patients whose CT scans would have been labeled unnecessary by the new measure.

The authors of the report suggest CMS do away with the measure.