Assertion Contradicted AI assessment confidence: 90% certainty 3/5 debate potential 1/5

DeMarco: 1.5M dysphagia tests done yearly, reimbursing $1,500 to $3,000

Steve DeMarco · Revolutionizing Dysphagia Diagnosis: IMAGExRAY’s Technology is Transforming Healthcare · Jun 10, 2025 · at 3:58

Steve DeMarco, President of Image X-Ray, outlines annual testing volumes and reimbursement rates for modified barium swallow studies.

0:00 / 0:16exact quote · 16.6s

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“There are something like a million and a half, I don't know, a million and a half tests done every year. And depending on the geography and the professionals that are required by state regulation to be involved, the reimbursement can total anywhere from 1500 bucks to 3000 dollars.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Approximately 1.5 million modified barium swallow tests are conducted annually in the United States, with reimbursements ranging from $1,500 to $3,000 per procedure.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

Both legs of the claim fail based on public healthcare billing and utilization data. Actual allowable reimbursements for a Modified Barium Swallow Study (combining radiologic examination CPT 74230 and speech-language pathology evaluation CPT 92611 across facility, technical, and professional components) total between $250 and $600 under standard Medicare and commercial payer fee schedules, far below the claimed $1,500 to $3,000 range. The $1,500 to $3,000 figure reflects gross hospital chargemaster list prices rather than actual reimbursements received by providers. Additionally, public claims databases do not document 1.5 million completed MBSS procedures annually.

Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (2025/2026) and commercial fee schedules show total combined allowable reimbursement for CPT 74230 and CPT 92611 ranges from $250 to $600 per procedure, well below $1,000.
Gross hospital chargemaster list prices range from $1,400 to $3,000+, but actual contractual reimbursement is a small fraction of gross billed charges.
Verified claims databases and Medicare utilization data do not support 1.5 million annual completed MBSS procedures.

Checked against

[1] dysphagiaramblings.net [2] carolinafees.com [3] sprypt.com [4] aetna.com [5] nih.gov [6] federalregister.gov [7] pabau.com [8] medibillsaver.com

modified barium swallow reimbursement CPT 74230 92611 facility fee professional fee "modified barium swallow" Medicare reimbursement rate CPT 74230 92611 "modified barium swallow" "annually" US OR "United States" million "74230" "utilization" Medicare annual volume OR "allowed services" "92611" Medicare physician fee schedule reimbursement 2024 OR 2025 OR 2026 "74230" Medicare physician fee schedule reimbursement 2024 OR 2025 OR 2026

assessed as of 2026-09-02

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

modified barium swallow test

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DeMarco: 1.5M dysphagia tests done yearly, reimbursing $1,500 to $3,000

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