1.   San Diego-based Medical Imaging provides outpatient services and medical equipment to doctors and hospitals.

2.   The companies began limiting inpatient stays, putting more emphasis on outpatient services.

3.   And hospitals of all sizes said that they had much lower profit margins on Medicare payments for outpatient services.

4.   And the prospect of higher co-payments and insurance premiums has spurred politicians to press for restraints on the cost of outpatient services.

5.   At Columbia-Presbyterian, Dr. Rafael A. Lantigua, the director of general medicine outpatient services, has many patients in common with a folk healer named Celeste.

6.   Because of the law, payments to hospitals for outpatient services were cut in many areas below payment levels in effect before the law was passed.

7.   Because of a quirk in the federal Medicare law, elderly people are being required to pay more than their normal share of the bill for hospital outpatient services.

8.   A provision authored by Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., was designed to lessen the impact of Medicare cuts to hospitals for outpatient services.

9.   But in recent years, hospitals have charged far more than Medicare pays for outpatient services.

10.   But some of the expected savings have been offset by explosive growth in the number of Medicare claims for outpatient services.