Technical costs and reimbursement. An AFROC (Association of Freestanding Radiation Oncology Centers) survey.
Based upon this survey, the technical cost per RVU is $16.87 in freestanding radiation oncology centers. A 47% increase in technical reimbursement is needed in order to cover technical radiation oncology costs. Because technical costs are continuing to escalate, the gap between cost and reimbursement will widen unless modifications in the system are made. The data from this survey does not justify the implementation of an energy modifier for reimbursement purposes (although there was limited data from single unit, high energy facilities). Total costs increase with increasing beam energy; however, total services or RVUs are inversely proportional to beam energy and the resultant technical cost per RVU does not increase with treatment beam energy. In this survey, 13 of 80 centers (16%) had the capability to treat with a photon beam energy greater than 11 MV.
Spearman
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D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000191:economics*; D002173:Cancer Care Facilities / Q000191:economics*; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008495:Medical Oncology / Q000191:economics*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy; D011871:Radiology / Q000191:economics*; D015895:Relative Value Scales; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States