+ 2011’s Top 20 Imaging-center Chains: Second Annual Report
+ Productivity Pressure: IT Unlocks New Radiologist and Referrer Capabilities
+ New Payment Models and the Radiology Practice
+ Value-based Purchasing: From Theory to Practice
+ Health Leaders Media: Jersey City Medical Center Offers to Buy Christ Hospital
+ Press Release: Matakina Picks David Mezzoprete as New North American Sales V.P.
+ Desert News: Utah State Senator Introduces Breast Density Bill
+ Sacrament Bee: “Single Payor” Health Care Bill Stalled in California Senate, Will Probably Fail
+ Radiology: Clinical Decision Support Reduces Use, Increases Yield of CT Pulmonary Angiography in ED
Radiology efficiency: The leading edge
Smart Practice Decisions Begin with Data Integration Recording
Developing a Comprehensive IT Strategy for the Practice: Roles, Relationships, Resources
Centralized Imaging and Collaboration in Today’s Decentralized Imaging Business
Extreme RIS: Breaking Down Communication Barriers
Advanced Visualization | Next-generation Architectures
RIS to the Rescue | Strategies for Driving Revenue, Productivity and Profitability
Keep Your Hospital Relationships Healthy: Strategies for Every Practice
+ breaking news
Submit news to David Rosenfeld
False Positives Low for CT Lung Cancer Screening
January 27, 2012
Addressing concerns that CT imaging to screen for lung cancer would increase the number of false-positives, researchers found it actually resulted in a low rate for benign nodules.
A study published in the current issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology looked at nearly 5,000 high-risk current and former smokers who had CT of the chest between 2003 and 2009. Biopsies were performed on 127 patients with an overall false-positive rate of 0.42%. Read More »
Radiologist Referrals Generate Few High-Cost Exams
January 27, 2012
A study in the latest issue of the journal Radiology says that a radiologists recommendation accounts for only a small portion of high-cost imaging procedures.
Researchers looked at nearly 30,000 high-cost imaging exams and found that 5.3% followed a radiologists recommendation. Chest CT was the most common, followed by... Read More »
Posted in research , utilization management
Congress Restarts “Doc-Fix” Talks as Med Groups Weigh-In
January 26, 2012
Congressional lawmakers re-opened negotiations Tuesday over a deal to avoid deep cuts to Medicare reimbursements set to take effect March 1 based on the Sustainable Growth Rate formula.
A deal before the end of the year extended Medicare physician payments for two months, along with an extension of... Read More »
Posted in medicare , acr , sgr , mppr
GE Healthcare to Open New Facility in Saudi Arabia
January 26, 2012
GE Healthcare announced a memo-of-understanding this week with a Saudi Arabia firm to build a radiopharmaceutical plant and PET imaging facility in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The new facility will be located within the Abdul Aziz University Hospital campus on lands controlled by the Suadi Arabian firm Wadi... Read More »
Posted in ge healthcare , imaging vendor news
Varian Ends First Quarter Down 1 Percent
January 26, 2012
Varian Medical Systems, the Palo Alto-based maker of oncology and X-ray equipment, announced first quarter net earnings were down 1 percent from last year.
Revenues for the quarter were $625 million, up 8 percent from the same period a year ago, but net earnings were still down, according to a ... Read More »
Posted in imaging vendor news
Researchers Use MRI to Map Basic Brain Function
January 25, 2012
New ways of using MR imaging to map the basic wiring of the brain are being developed by teams of researchers at various institutions, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.
Researchers at the Human Connectome Project, the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle... Read More »
MRI Can Improve Robotic-Assisted Prostate Surgery
January 25, 2012
Using MRI before surgery to treat prostate cancer can reduce complications such as incontinence and erectile dysfunction, according to researchers at University of California at Los Angeles.
Surgeons at UCLA use robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP), which is still largely dependent by parameters entered by the surgeon.
... Read More »
PCORI Punt is More Than a Bit Ironic
January 26, 2012
Those waiting to see if the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) would make any facet of radiology part of its initial focus were disappointed—or relieved—Monday when the independent research organization issued its first set of research priorities.
The five research “priorities” issued by this Accountable Care Act created organization were so vague in nature and low on specifics that almost any comparative effectiveness research could qualify as something the institute would consider funding. You can click here for a PDF of the full report. Skip...
+ business
Revenue-cycle Management: Minimizing Denials and Maximizing Collections
The best way to minimize denials is to prevent them in the first place, by making sure that medical claims meet the requirements for clean claims. A clean claim is defined as a claim that meets the standards required by insurance carriers for payment on first submission.
The components of a clean claim include (but are not limited to) conducting accurate demographic and insurance registration of patients, meeting timely filing deadlines, performing insurance verification, complying with utilization-management requirements (such as preauthorization of advanced imaging), and reconciliation of incompatible diagnosis and procedure codes.
Accurate Registration
... Read More »+ leadership
Leadership As Performance Art
I am sure that many of you have read the great 2004 book by Fred Lee, If Disney Ran Your Hospital.1 I have often used the material in this definitive treatise on customer service in my strategic-planning retreats, as the ideas and concepts about which Lee writes are timeless and apply to virtually any service organization.
The book’s key takeaway is essentially that people judge organizations based on the total experience of their encounter with the enterprise. They compare this experience not necessarily with experiences at other, similar providers (in this particular example), but with what they... Read More »
+ imaging informatics
Ready, Set—Attest
When Keith Dreyer, DO, PhD, speaks to an audience of radiologists on meaningful use (something he does quite often, these days), he always asks for a show of hands to determine who is doing what with regard to demonstrating meaningful use of IT. Dreyer, vice chair of radiology computing and information sciences at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, reports that despite their eligibility for the incentives—and exposure to penalties in 2015—a scant few are in the process of attesting to meaningful use of health IT in 2011.
In his keynote presentation, “Meaningful Use for Radiologists: A 10-step... Read More »
+ radiology service lines
Subspecialization and Teleradiology: An Uneasy Alliance
Why would orthopedic surgeons bypass a nearby hospital or imaging center when referring patients? If they happened to be in the Midwest, they might prefer the subspecialized interpretations offered by Linda L. Dew, MD, FRCPC. After more than two decades as a practicing radiologist, Dew has developed expertise in imaging of the feet, ankles, hands, and wrists.
Choosy surgeons have come to rely on her, and they have no qualms about asking patients to go slightly out of their way for an interpretation that they can trust. Dew, who works for a teleradiology company (headquartered in Southern... Read More »
+ macroeconomics
The Radiology Staffing Market, Temporary and Permanent
Introduction: As pressures on reim- bursement and utilization continue to have an impact on the imaging market- place, radiology-staffing data suggest a shift in the availability and use of pro- fessional services over the past decade. This installment of the Imaging Market File tracks current and recent developments in the supply of radiologists, the demand for their temporary (locum tenens) and per- manent services, and related staffing trends, based on data collected by AMN Healthcare (San Diego, California) and Staff Care (Irving, Texas).
Figure 1. The total active-candidate pool available to organizations seeking diagnostic radiologists, based on numbers tracked... Read More »
+ AHRA | The Association for Medical Management
+ American College of Healthcare Executives
+ American College of Radiology
+ NSW Medical Radiation Scientists
+ Radiology Business Management Association
+ Radiology Meaningful Use Site
+ Radiological Society of North America
+ SIIM - The Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine