CLINICAL NEWS
Underfunded and Unsatisfied: The State of Cancer Research
The Real Costs of MOC
A new national survey of American voters conducted on behalf of the American Association for Cancer
Research (AACR) reveals that the majority of Americans believe federal funding for cancer research
should be increased.
Since increasing the requirements and fees for its Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program in 2014, the American
Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) has faced mounting criticism for unreasonable testing fees and demands on physicians’ time. In response to this criticism, ABIM suspended
certain content requirements but retained the increased
fees and number of modules in 2015. But did this
reduce total costs?
15
20 illion
In a comparison of the total costs of the
.7 b
2015 version of the MOC program and the
$5
2013 version, the costs actually increased
13 n
20 illio
with the new program requirements.
b
.5
$4
Altogether, the 2015 MOC program will cost
$5.7 billion – $1.2 billion more than 2013
MOC program. This includes $5.1 billion in
time costs (resulting from 32.7 million
physician-hours spent on MOC) and
$561 million in testing costs.
81%
74%
69%
of American voters
surveyed supported using
taxpayer dollars to fund
medical research
favored (and 49%
“strongly favored”)
increasing federal funding
for cancer research
believed that increasing medical
research funding should be a
high priority for Congress (and
26% believed it should be the
highest priority)
Americans haven’t lost hope, though: 5 out of every 6 voters recognize that progress is being made
against cancer.
Source: Sandhu AT, Dudley RA, Kazi DS. A cost analysis of the American
Board of Internal Medicine’s Maintenance-of-Certification program. Ann
Intern Med. 2015;163:401-8.
Source: AACR, “Cancer Progress Report 2015.”
Imaging the Future: Continued Declines in Medicare Spending
An analysis of state-level trends in Medicare spending per beneficiary revealed that spending on medical
imaging decreased in nearly every state since 2006 – reversing previous trends. Researchers looked at
Medicare part B files from 2004 through 2012 to compute national and state-by-state annual average
spending per beneficiary.
Spending on imaging increased 7.8% annually
between 2004 ($350.54) and its peak in 2006
($ CR