Revenue-cycle Management: Minimizing Denials and Maximizing Collections

November 28, 2011 | Feature

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.

Health Care’s New Financial Outlook

July 14, 2010 | Deal Scan

A window of access to capital has opened for hospitals, according to Lisa Goldstein, because of the improvement in the debt markets seen over the past six to nine months. On June 23, 2010, at the Read More »

Rescuing Retirement

April 29, 2010 | Practice Finance

If you are like many physicians, you are lamenting the losses to your retirement plan after the financial meltdown. You might have lost a substantial amount, and you might wonder how you can quickly regain the losses.

If you have a 401(k) account, you can contribute up... Read More »

Imaging-center Valuation 2010: Post-reform Drivers

April 16, 2010 | Finance

While the industry landscape has certainly changed significantly since Radiology Business Journal published my article on this subject three years ago, the primary factors that drive the desire to complete transactions and the valuations remain largely intact. <... Read More »

Radiology Billing, CSI: Managing Individual Payor Contracts

January 26, 2010 | Finance

At NYU Langone Medical Center (NYULMC), New York, New York, even though the radiology department’s billing office adheres to the principle of a cross-trained staff pool, it practices the explicit division of labor: Coders do nothing but code, payment posters post payments, claims processors specialize in making sure... Read More »

Managing the Revenue Cycle

December 01, 2009 | Feature

Viewing revenue-cycle management as a function limited only to billing is shortsighted at best, and is more likely to be a mistake. Revenue-cycle management affects the entire practice, imaging center, and hospital radiology department, from a new patient’s first inquiry (whether made by telephone, through an online portal,... Read More »

Restructuring the Balance Sheet

October 02, 2009 | Feature

If you are anything like me, you have had a few sleepless nights worrying about the future of the health-services industry. Historically, the industry has been a safe haven for investment due to the fact that it is not directly dependent on economic cycles. That, however, has changed in... Read More »

Accessing Capital in a Tight Credit Market

July 26, 2009 | Finance

After weathering last fall’s fiscal catastrophe, many hospital CFOs now find themselves in Bert Zimmerli’s position. Though Zimmerli is senior vice president and CFO of the only health care system in the country to receive the highest credit rating from both Standard & Poor&rsquo... Read More »

Imaging JVs: Strategic Partners or Just One More Competitor?

May 02, 2009 | Feature

Hospital-radiology group JVs are key to preserving and growing imaging market share, but failure to cement strong relationships and expectations from the start is a prescription for failure

Well before legal and operational considerations of contemplated joint ventures (JVs) take place, it is of critical and increasing... Read More »

The High Price of Low Payment

May 02, 2009 | Adview

Prepare for sharp increases in diagnostic imaging costs if CMS prices practices and entrepreneurs out of the imaging center business

The setting was luxurious, but the mood decidedly frugal at the recent Imaging 100 meeting in Carlsbad, Calif. Not that executives from the nation’s leading outpatient imaging... Read More »

The Weakening Economy and Health Care Collections

March 15, 2009 | Revenue Track

One of the overlooked consequences of the current economic uncertainty is the effect on health care collections, but as imaging centers struggle to adapt to the triple witching hour—declining reimbursement, the sour economy, and the increase in consumer-driven health care—effective, efficient collections have become crucial to survival.<... Read More »

Top 10 Control Items for Managing Practice Financials

December 16, 2008 | Revenue Track

You have, no doubt, heard the story about the quiet, loyal employee with many years of service to the business who one day sends his boss a postcard from Rio de Janiero, saying that he’s not coming back. Then the owner discovers that a large amount from accounts... Read More »

Historical Review of Mergers and Acquisitions in Diagnostic Imaging

December 01, 2008 | Feature

From the go-go years to the present, acquisition strategies in the outpatient diagnostic imaging field have not always worked

As we sit on the precipice of a meltdown in the credit markets, I am reminded of a quote from Winston Churchill: “Those who forget history are bound... Read More »

Negotiating for Better Reimbursement

November 16, 2008 | Radiology Business Journal

Negotiating higher reimbursement is nearly always possible, according to Penny Noyes, president and CEO, Health Business Navigators, Bowling Green, Ky. She presented Payor Contracts: Strategies to Analyze and Negotiate Improved Payor Reimbursement on October 21, 2008, in San Diego, at the annual conference of the Medical Group Management Association.

The New Economics of Contrast

September 01, 2008 | Feature

Contrast is the number-one consumable in the radiology department, and its use is being driven by efficiency, safety, and reimbursement concerns

Not too long ago, prices for contrast media could get a radiology director’s pulse racing. Now, that pulse is fairly steady, even though the flow... Read More »

Financial Adventures in Imaging, Post DRA

August 15, 2008 | Deal Scan

It’s been a year and a half since the debut of the DRA imaging cuts, and the dust is beginning to settle in the outpatient imaging market, according to Douglas Lynch, senior vice president and US chief risk officer, and Thomas Bruce, senior vice president and senior credit... Read More »

Operating Radiology As an Individual Business Unit

July 15, 2008 | Radiology Business Journal

Both hospitals and imaging centers are struggling with economic and political pressures that are straining their relationships with staff; finance (administration/owners); radiologists; vendors (IT providers, equipment manufacturers, suppliers, and consultants); referring physicians; and the community (your patients). Collectively, we will call them your partners.

The struggle... Read More »

Stronger Financial Statements Earn Better Financing Options

April 15, 2008 | Radiology Business Journal

Obtaining the most favorable financing depends on having the kinds of financial statements that lenders want to see. Before seeking funding for a de novo build, an upgrade to an existing imaging center, or new modality purchases, it is important to understand the commonly used types of financial statements,... Read More »

Structuring Imaging Ventures in Today’s Regulatory Climate

December 15, 2007 | Quality

Over the past 15 years, outpatient imaging has been subject to high growth rates. Because this has been particularly true of the more profitable high-end imaging services, this growth has attracted attention from all quarters. For the first 10 of those 15 high-growth years, outpatient imaging was most often provided by hospitals... Read More »

Can an EMP Reduce Center Operating Costs?

January 15, 2007 | NONE

In light of the Deficit Reduction Act, which went into effect in this month, many imaging practices and physician offices that provide diagnostic imaging services, are looking for ways to reduce their operating costs. Some practices are looking at reducing staff; while others are evaluating every line item of... Read More »

The CRO: On Reimbursement Watch

November 15, 2006 | NONE

Sometimes I joke with people who ask me what I do for a living. “I am a crow,” I reply. I recently joined the administrative team of Inland Imaging in Spokane, Washington, and fill a slightly different and (hopefully) value-added role for the company. While most Spokanites have heard... Read More »

Financing Challenges for the Post-DRA Era

November 15, 2006 | NONE

The pending implementation of the DRA reimbursements cuts has been looming over the diagnostic imaging industry for the past year. Although there has been hope for a fourth quarter moratorium on the implementation on these cuts, we encourage all those to be effected to manage their business planning under... Read More »

Attention, All Campers

September 15, 2006 | NONE

Much has been said and written about the significant economic effect the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) will have on the imaging industry. For many, imaging expansion plans have been stopped, development or equipment sales departments have been downsized, and equipment purchases and upgrades have been placed on hold... Read More »