NU Online News Service, Oct. 15, 2003, 5:55 p.m. EDT – Increasing demand for diagnostic imaging from consumers, wider availability of imaging equipment and excessive use of imaging technology are driving up U.S. health care costs, according to a report released by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, Chicago.
The authors of the report predict that diagnostic imaging costs will grow to $100 billion per year by 2005, up from about $75 billion in 2000.
Consumers may be demanding more imaging services partly because the new imaging systems are less invasive than the old systems were, the authors write.