May 23, 2016 — The new ICE-T (Inpatient Cost Evaluation Tool) enables radiology practices and hospitals to compare internal costs to national benchmarks to decide if bundled payment for specific services should be pursued. This free resource is available on the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute website.
A bundled payment is a single payment that covers services delivered by two or more health providers during a single episode of care over a specified time. This payment method is a major component of healthcare reform to prompt the delivery of improved patient outcomes at lower costs.
“There are many factors to consider when hospitals and radiology practices are looking at developing and participating in bundled payments. ICE-T eases that transition, focusing on value, variance and volume and providing national average benchmark price points,” said Danny R. Hughes, Ph.D., Neiman Institute senior director for health policy research and senior research fellow. “With ICE-T and the right data, radiologists can proactively succeed with bundled payment and deliver higher-value care to patients,” he added.
The Neiman Institute aggregated many years of national inpatient Medicare data by diagnostic radiology groups and presents it in an easy-to-use graphical interface. ICE-T contains data on total hospital reimbursement, total imaging reimbursements and the imaging share of reimbursements across inpatient diagnosis related groups for Medicare claims data. “The Neiman Health Policy Institute proactively developed this operational tool, in advance of other medical specialties, to help radiology providers make critical decisions by showing where effective costs — and risks — are,” he noted.
For more information: www.neimanhpi.org
July 31, 2026 
