Medicare's national coverage determinations in diagnostic radiology: examining evidence and setting limits.

Objective: To systematically review and summarize the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) national coverage determination (NCDs) pertaining diagnostic imaging technologies from 1999 through 2010.

Methods: All NCDs pertaining to diagnostic imaging were identified from the Tufts Medical Center NCD database. The variables under study included the quality of the clinical evidence and the final coverage determination.

Accuracy, risk and the intrinsic value of diagnostic imaging: a review of the cost-utility literature.

Rationale And Objectives: The aim of this study was to systematically review the reporting of the value of imaging unrelated to treatment consequences and test characteristics in all imaging-related published cost-utility analyses (CUAs) in the medical literature.

Materials And Methods: All CUAs published between 1976 and 2008 evaluating diagnostic imaging technologies contained in the CEA Registry, a publicly available comprehensive database of health related CUAs, were screened. Publication characteristics, imaging modality, and the inclusion of test characteristics including accuracy, costs, risks, and the potential value unrelated to treatment consequences (eg, reassurance or anxiety) were assessed.

Cost-effective diagnostic cardiovascular imaging: when does it provide good value for the money?

To summarize the results of all original cost-utility analyses (CUAs) in diagnostic cardiovascular imaging (CVI) and characterize those technologies by estimates of their cost-effectiveness. We systematically searched the literature for original CVI CUAs published between 2000 and 2008. Studies were classified according to several variables including anatomy of interest (e.