Society News Archive

7 September 2012
Health Care Officials Comment on HHS Proposal for Radioisotope Incentives

Health care industry officials argue that the Health and Human Services (HHS) administration is underestimating how much it would cost to switch to more expensive isotopes derived from lowly enriched uranium. Under the HHS proposal, the government would pay health care providers an extra $10 every time they conducted a diagnostic procedure using radiopharmaceuticals that were "produced using non-highly enriched uranium methods."

The extra $10 per procedure will likely not be enough to persuade relevant entities to use isotopes produced with the more proliferation-resistant material, according to the health care industry officials.

Read more here.