Massachusetts and Health-care Reform: The Radiology Experience

April 27, 2012 | Feature

While the fate and integrity of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) are likely to be clarified in this highly polarized presidential-election year, Massachusetts continues along a path (begun 5.5 years ago) to reform its health-care system under a law that shares many of the hallmarks of the... Read More »

Forecasting Imaging Use Under Health-care Reform

April 27, 2012 | NONE

Provided by Regents Health Resources

Regents Health Resources was formed in 1996 to assist hospitals and physicians in the development... Read More »

Families Continue to Struggle With Paying for Medical Care

April 27, 2012 | Priors

For January through June 2011, one-third of people in the United States were members of families having difficulties paying for medical care, according to a March 2012 report.¹ One in five people was in a family having problems paying medical bills, one in four was in a family paying medical... Read More »

MU2: Value Proposition for Radiology

April 27, 2012 | Priors

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... Read More »

CT Dose Reporting in California

April 27, 2012 | The Bottom Line

Many of the accidents that spurred press coverage of CT overdoses in recent years occurred in California. This led to enactment of the state’s SB 1237 (and subsequent cleanup legislation), which will take effect on July 1, 2012. The law’s basic provisions are that the so-called CT dose—the volumetric... Read More »

Price Disparity + Price Transparency=Imaging-market Turmoil

February 19, 2012 | Feature

Buy a banana, and it will cost you less than a dollar per pound—unless you’re in a hotel, where it might cost you twice the grocery-store price. The prices of many items readily obtainable by the consumer usually fall within a well-defined range, according to supply and... Read More »

CT and MRI:  Regional Variations in Utilization and Reimbursement

February 19, 2012 | NONE

Provided by Regents Health Resources

Regents Health Resources was formed in 1996 to assist hospitals and physicians in the development... Read More »

A Conversation With the Nation’s Health IT Chiefs

February 19, 2012 | Priors

Attestation for stage 1 meaningful use is underway in radiology, and expectations are rising about the ability of IT to reduce cost and increase quality in health care. In separate interviews with Radiology Business Journal, Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM, national coordinator for health IT, and Todd Park, CTO for the... Read More »

The Radiology Staffing Market, Temporary and Permanent

November 28, 2011 | NONE

Provided by Regents Health Resources

Regents Health Resources was formed in 1996 to assist hospitals and physicians in the development... Read More »

The 75 Largest Private Radiology Practices

November 28, 2011 | Feature

Introduction During the break of a radiology-group retreat, a young radiologist was congratulating a radiologist 30 years his senior on his upcoming retirement. The young radiologist... Read More »

Radiology’s Nuclear Spring

November 28, 2011 | Adview

Tilting toward RSNA and entering the home stretch of 2011, I haven’t had a lot of time to reflect on the year, but I know that I am not alone. Everywhere I go, I hear a common chorus (no time!) followed by a plaintive refrain (at least I still... Read More »

ACOs: A Concept in Motion

October 28, 2011 | Feature

While health-policy experts debate the potential of accountable-care organizations (ACOs) to address the problem of cost in US health care, a panel held on July 22, 2011, at the RBMA Executive Education Program in Scottsdale, Arizona, reveals that with prototype ACOs already in play and health-care systems assessing their ACO needs,... Read More »

Magical Thinking About Imaging

October 27, 2011 | Adview

I understand that the government does not want to spend money on an imaging examination that is unnecessary. As a fiscal conservative, I have an inherent distaste for waste and actively resent the idea of my tax dollars being spent on anything that isn’t necessary. When it comes... Read More »

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

October 21, 2011 | NONE

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... Read More »

Radiology-group Financial Performance

September 04, 2011 | Feature

Provided by Regents Health Resources

Regents Health Resources was formed in 1996 to assist hospitals and physicians in the development... Read More »

ACOs and Radiology Technology: A Conversation With Bibb Allen Jr, MD

July 16, 2011 | Legislative Report

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act calls for early adopters to launch accountable-care organization (ACO) demonstration projects and shared-savings programs in 2012. The development of these value-added services and the general trend toward formation of ACOs will undoubtedly lead to changes not only in the acquisition of imaging technology... Read More »

Predator or Prey?

July 16, 2011 | The Big Picture

Here we go again: In a replay of the early, heady days when HMOs and managed-care models blurred the lines between payor and provider, we are again seeing health-care consolidation on a dizzying scale—which is almost obliterating that line completely. Two recent deals are emblematic of both the... Read More »

The 2012 Hit List: Code Pairs That Meet the 75% Threshold

July 04, 2011 | NONE

Radiology first felt the effects of the bundling initiative launched by CMS in 2010, with the creation of combined CPT® codes for myocardial perfusion, wall motion, and ejection fraction (78451–78454); arteriovenous shunt dialysis-catheter procedures, along with radiological supervision and interpretation (36147 and 36148); and facet-joint injection procedures that include imaging guidance (64490–64495).

The Great CT Bundling Heist of 2011

July 04, 2011 | Feature

Medicare is looking for misvalued imaging codes—and it has already found several for which it has reduced payment. Its efforts have dismayed radiologists. Facing more revenue losses from CMS and the private insurers that follow in the agency’s footprints, radiologists feel targeted and, as a specialty, misvalued... Read More »

RBMs in New Orleans: The Panel and the Pain

July 04, 2011 | Priors

On June 7, 2011, at the Annual Summit of the RBMA in New Orleans, Louisiana, four CEOs and one senior leader—representing all five radiology benefit management (RBM) companies—participated in a panel discussion during a general session, “Face to Face With RBM CEOs: Shaping the Dialogue for Imaging’s New... Read More »

The Triple Threat of Bundling Codes

July 04, 2011 | The Bottom Line

Radiology’s existing coding structure is undergoing a dramatic transformation, which is the product of numerous code screens being used by CMS and the RVS Update Committee to identify potentially misvalued services. The application of these code screens often results in the conversion of old codes to new codes.... Read More »

Your Undivided Attention

July 04, 2011 | Adview

The June 2011 MedPAC Report to the Congress1 has the undivided attention of the entire specialty, just days after its release—for good reason. Pages 27 through 59 detail the commission’s recommendations to curtail further the amount of imaging occurring in medicine and to redistribute professional income from image-reading specialties to... Read More »

Clinical Decision Support: The Journey Begins

February 16, 2011 | Feature

Is it goodbye to radiology benefit management (RBM) companies and hello to automated decision-support systems? Not really, as the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Nonetheless, computerized decision-support tools are gaining ground in the outpatient setting.

With CMS about to begin a Medicare decision-support demonstration project for high-end... Read More »

Quo Vadis/ Whither Goest Thou?

February 16, 2011 | Priors

It is no easy task to hit a moving target, so the seven speakers who presented the refresher course, “How Payment Policy Will Impact Technology Development in the 21st Century,” on November 30, 2010, at the annual meeting of the RSNA in Chicago, Illinois, diligently colored in the background of the... Read More »

Where Is the Alignment Behind Decision Support?

February 16, 2011 | The Bottom Line

The lack of consensus (and vision) in the imaging community is readily apparent when the topic of clinical decision support is raised. Clinical decision support allows for electronic documentation of the appropriateness of the imaging service ordered and provided, offering clinicians real-time guidance, rather than black-box rules.