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Homepage > AJR OnTrend > Implementing Abbreviated MRI Screening Into a Breast Imaging Practice

Implementing Abbreviated MRI Screening Into a Breast Imaging Practice

Holly Marshall
Corresponding Author

MRI remains the most sensitive tool for detecting breast cancer, but cost and acquisition time continue to be deterrents for women at average risk. For patients at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center who received a digital mammography (DM) or digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) screening examination, patients with heterogeneously dense or extremely dense breast tissue received their density notification and mammogram results by mail, alongside a pamphlet explaining a new supplemental screening option: abbreviated protocol MRI. Choosing to implement the EA1141 study protocol—localizer sequences, axial T2-weighted STIR sequence, axial T1-weighted sequence with fat saturation before and after IV administration of gadolinium contrast—a team led by Holly Marshall, MD maintained a schedule of three 10-minute examinations in a single one-hour time slot (i.e., the time allotted for a complete MRI exam). After presenting the concept of “Fast MRI” to her hospital’s leadership board of surgeons, pathologists, breast clinicians, and medical and radiation oncologists, Marshall created online educational resources for referring physicians and patients. Marshall’s colleagues noted that it took 10 months to establish pricing through their institution’s finance department, as abbreviated MRI is a self-pay procedure that cannot be billed to insurance because no CPT code exists for it. Relying upon radiology self-pay tests such as unenhanced lung cancer CT screening and cardiac scoring as precedents for cost determination, Marshall concluded that her institution’s price is “substantially lower than that of the full breast MRI protocol” and “many patients with high-deductible insurance plans have a lower out-of-pocket expense for [abbreviated protocol] breast MRI than for the full protocol.”

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