12% of Secondary Imaging Interpretation Costs are Paid by Patients

A new Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute study found that patients paid 12% of the costs of secondary imaging interpretation out-of-pocket. Such secondary interpretations are increasingly performed for complex patients, but patients’ liabilities and paid out-of-pocket costs were not previously known. This Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR) study was based on 7,740 secondary interpretations for adult patients performed in a large metropolitan health system over a 2-year period.