RAPS: A status report

Despite the efforts of those paying the bills for health services, the cumulative costs of such services have continued to rise faster than the cost of living or other national indexes. Within that, the cost of Medicare program is nearing $80 billion annually, with general tax revenues and public trust funds making up the larger part of the total. Thus, the Reagan administration and congressional leaders have sought for several years to restrain further increases in Medicare costs. One proposal, offered with the 1988 budget message, would be to pay radiologists, anesthesiologists, and pathologists for services to hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries through a diagnosis related group mechanism, comparable to the current basis for paying hospital costs. Along with most other national medical groups, the American College of Radiology has made an extraordinary effort to defeat this proposal