Utilization Management of High-Cost Imaging in an Outpatient Setting in a Large Stable Patient and Provider Cohort over 7 Years.

Purpose To quantify the effect of a comprehensive, long-term, provider-led utilization management (UM) program on high-cost imaging (computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, nuclear imaging, and positron emission tomography) performed on an outpatient basis. Materials and Methods This retrospective, 7-year cohort study included all patients regularly seen by primary care physicians (PCPs) at an urban academic medical center. The main outcome was the number of outpatient high-cost imaging examinations per patient per year ordered by the patient's PCP or by any specialist. The authors determined the probability of a patient undergoing any high-cost imaging procedure during a study year and the number of examinations per patient per year (intensity) in patients who underwent high-cost imaging. Risk-adjusted hierarchical models were used to directly quantify the physician component of variation in probability and intensity of high-cost imaging use, and clinicians were provided with regular comparative feedback on the basis of the results. Observed trends in high-cost imaging use and provider variation were compared with the same measures for outpatient laboratory studies because laboratory use was not subject to UM during this period. Finally, per-member per-year high-cost imaging use data were compared with statewide high-cost imaging use data from a major private payer on the basis of the same claim set. Results The patient cohort steadily increased in size from 88 959 in 2007 to 109 823 in 2013. Overall high-cost imaging utilization went from 0.43 examinations per year in 2007 to 0.34 examinations per year in 2013, a decrease of 21.33% (P < .0001). At the same time, similarly adjusted routine laboratory study utilization decreased by less than half that rate (9.4%, P < .0001). On the basis of unadjusted data, outpatient high-cost imaging utilization in this cohort decreased 28%, compared with a 20% decrease in statewide utilization (P = .0023). Conclusion Analysis of high-cost imaging utilization in a stable cohort of patients cared for by PCPs during a 7-year period showed that comprehensive UM can produce a significant and sustained reduction in risk-adjusted per-patient year outpatient high-cost imaging volume. © RSNA, 2017.