Hospitals Losing Major Imaging Market Share Despite Growth in Volume

A recent study by Solucient indicates that while more imaging procedures are being performed, fewer are being performed at hospitals. As a result, hospitals are losing market share in all major procedure groups, except one: positron emission tomography (PET).

The study focused on four major imaging procedures. In addition to PET, they were computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT).

According to the data, overall growth in utilization of the four major imaging procedures is robust, with combined total volume increasing 25 percent from 2003 to 2005. Specifically, CTs, which account for almost two-thirds of the combined total, have risen approximately 25 percent from about 32 million to 40 million while MRIs have grown by 26 percent from almost 16 million to 20 million. The number of SPECT procedures has grown from 5 million to 7 million, an increase of more than 40 percent. Although fewest in number, PETs have seen the greatest percentage growth, jumping 88 percent from 430,000 to 810,000.

However, the study shows that a significant shift is taking place regarding site of service for imaging procedures. Since 2003, the number of procedures taking place outside the hospital has grown faster than the number performed within the hospital. Over the last two years, non-hospital based volume has grown from about 18 million to 26 million procedures, reflecting a 43 percent increase. In the same period, hospital-based volume has experienced much slower growth of only 18 percent, from 35 million to almost 42 million procedures.

Data for the study came from the latest release of OutpatientView™, Solucient's online application that details patient volumes by outpatient setting by specific procedures (CPT) or diagnoses (ICD-9-CM codes). Based on a new, larger source of claims covering a wider breadth of procedures, the latest version of OutpatientView includes 2005 data and contains volumes and trends for nearly 4,000 CPT codes.