The ACO Around the Corner

Perhaps because they don’t hang a sign out front, they aren’t located in one place, and they are (in a sense) virtual, accountable-care organizations (ACOs) have quietly blanketed nearly half the nation, according to a report¹ from the management-consulting company Oliver Wyman. In an attempt to...

Practices Adapt at the Expense of Political Advocacy

Readers of this journal tend to be interested in the business of radiology. We recognize the priority of having efficient and effective practices, whatever future health-care environment evolves. Observers would probably agree that many radiology practices have successfully improved their operational performance as market forces have demanded more value....

MU2: Value Proposition for Radiology

On March 7, 2012, the proposed rule¹ governing stage 2 of the CMS incentive program for electronic health records (EHRs) and the 2014 EHR certification criteria² were published to generally favorable reviews from organized radiology. Mike Peters, director of legislative and regulatory affairs for the ACR®, explains why the ACR has...

UC Davis Medical Center Embarks on Journey to Reduce Dose by 20%

Dose management (including dose-reduction strategies) is a dominant topic of conversation throughout the imaging world. Cross-disciplinary efforts to resolve the issue are moving to the forefront of both vendor and provider dockets, spurred on not least by quality metrics that tie reimbursement rates to patient outcomes.

At...

California Dose Legislation: National Implications

Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s governor, signed a new radiation patient protection law in October 2010 that mandates strict procedures and reporting requirements for CT scanners and radiation-therapy procedures, as well as the...

Radiology Lobby: Advocacy for High Stakes on Capitol Hill

Not every lobbying effort on the part of the imaging industry is a success. When the DRA was passed, for example, radiology took a hit; reimbursements were pared, and the industry emerged feeling that its rapid growth had left it with a target on its back.

Cindy...

The SGR Fix Passes With a 2.2% Update

The familiar, contentious debate surrounding Medicare’s sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula came to a temporary close on June 24, when the House of Representatives, by passing HR 3962, finally agreed to a Senate plan to put off a 21.3% decrease in payment rates. The payment fix is only effective through November 30,...

A Call to Action

Any reader of Radiology Business Journal knows that the complexity and intensity of managing a radiology practice are increasing exponentially. Likewise, we face myriad external factors from Washington that change almost daily and that are, seemingly, out of our control: health reform, the Physician Practice Information Survey, cuts due...

Regulatory Report: Gains Made in Campaign to Limit Self-referral

Organized radiology has been devoted to the self-referral issue for more than a decade. Early literature that documented increased physician referral rates for diagnostic...

Time to Unwind, and Other Effects of the 2009 MPFS

Few federal rules for billing and leasing of diagnostic testing equipment and technicians by mobile testing companies will require the restructuring or unwinding of...

Contest of the Implausibles

In an often-hilarious talk at the Beyond Conference in Washington, DC, on July 24, 2008, political observer and noted handicapper Charlie Cook gave the audience an...

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Appropriateness and the ACO: How Radiology Can Position Itself to Lead

The Growth Paradox: How Should Radiologists’ Behavior Be Rewarded?

Using Analytics to Achieve Strategic Goals: Quantum Imaging & Therapeutic Associates

Perspectives on Quality

IMAGINGBIZ FAMILY OF PUBLICATIONS

Perspectives

Cat Vasko
When Bigger Isn’t Better

Cheryl Proval
The Jig is Up

Curtis Kauffman-Pickelle
Video: Influence and Leadership

Lena Kauffman
Good Patient Communication Matters, So Why is it So Hard?

Steve Smith
It Takes Will to Fight Commoditization

Harley J Hammerman, MD
A Radiologist Swings Back on Escalating Health Care Costs

Caution Ahead: Keep Your Eyes on the Road

While driving a car, if you constantly look in the rearview mirror, it exponentially increases your chances of getting into a wreck.

The imaging industry was able to beat back more than a billion dollars’ worth of cuts in Medicare in a bill that President Bush signed...

Washington’s Low-Hanging Fruit: Diagnostic Imaging

In the world of Washington politics, health care and health care policy are high stakes and high profile. With today’s skyrocketing federal budget, and burgeoning deficit, the President and Congress are looking for savings.

Health care spending is considered a target-rich environment inside the Beltway. As...

Letter-Trafficking and Self-Referral in Massachusetts

As in many states, Massachusetts policy makers are examining the impact that ambulatory surgical centers and medical diagnostic imaging services, particularly physician owned, are having on the health care delivery system. Last year, the Massachusetts Legislature created a special study commission to examine these health services and their impact...

Do Proposed MPFS Changes Portend the Demise of Block Leases?

Although block-leasing arrangements have become increasingly marginalized given recent Board of Medical Examiner decisions and a spate of high profile whistleblower cases, such arrangements clearly remain a target for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The latest volley in this war of attrition came in the guise...

Legislative Report: Maryland Radiologists Defends State’s Anti-Self Referral Law

In 1993, the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation to prohibit self-referrals by physicians for three types of imaging services to patients. They were MRI, CT, and radiation oncology. The legislation was introduced on behalf of the Maryland Hospital Association, at that time concerned about the outside influence of physician- and...

Legislative Report: CMS Transmittal Rocks IDTF World

Just as imaging center operators thought they had a handle on the inhospitable reimbursment and regulatory environment for 2007, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a last-minute transmittal on January 26 that added significant changes to the 14 new compliance standards independent diagnostic testing facilities (IDTFs) must meet in...

NCQDIS: Now More than Ever

Those of us in the industry recognize that imaging is a fast-growing alternative to invasive procedures. New technology, an aging population, and declining costs of equipment are leading to more imaging procedures being performed each year.

Unfortunately, private and public payors have a tendency to react to...

Legislative Watch: AMIC Perseveres in Battling Imaging Cuts

Access to Medical Imaging Coalition (AMIC) was organized in early 2006, soon after Congress passed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 which significantly reduced the level of funding for medical imaging services provided in independent imaging facilities and physician offices. AMIC represents more than 75,000 physicians and medical providers, as well as...

Washington Report: Health Care Back on the Table

As the new Congress begins a shift toward a more domestic policy-dominated agenda, health care issues are expected to receive substantial attention. While there was hope during the last quarter of 2006 that a bill proposed in the House (HR 5704) as well as one proposed in the Senate (S. 3795) would...

Washington Update: Physicians, 1, Imaging Centers, 0

Physicians received yet another reprieve when the Senate’s final act before adjourning was to pass a broad tax and trade bill, 79-to-9, that contained the hope-for fix of the scheduled 5.1 percent cut in physician reimbursement.

However, the Access for Medical Imaging Coalition failed to obtain a...

It Takes Will to Fight Commoditization

Reversing the seemingly inevitable course toward commoditization requires the one element responsible for the success or failure of any business: Will.

From Quality to Outcomes: Deploying Clinical Analytics

Radiology’s ACO Play: Get in the Game—Now

Radiology’s Next Move: Bigger Data

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