Study: Imaging Improves Health Outcomes

March 16, 2010 | Imaging Futures

Lower mortality rates are among the benefits delivered by diagnostic imaging, according to a study in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of the American... Read More »

The 20 Largest Academic Radiology Practices

February 24, 2010 | Feature

EDITOR’S NOTE: Radiology Business Journal brings you this inaugural list of the largest academic radiology practices with our usual caveat: We know that this list is not complete. We publicized the survey through our e-journal ImagingBiz.com, and participation was completely voluntary. We extend our sincere gratitude to... Read More »

A Business Like No Other

February 24, 2010 | The Bottom Line

Health care is a business like no other because its very purpose is to extend and improve quality of life. It is a business, nonetheless, with revenues and costs, and with bills, lenders, and employees to pay. A common phrase, among even the most charitable of not-for-profit health-care organizations,... Read More »

Implications of Reform for Hospitals: Seismic or Subtle?

February 24, 2010 | Strategic Planning

Hospitals are keeping a wary eye on Washington, and on several key payor trends with major implications for imaging service lines, for good reason.

In a December 2, 2009, presentation to representatives of member hospitals in Chicago, Illinois, Shay Pratt, managing director of the Advisory Board, explained that radiology’... Read More »

When the FDA Sneezes…

February 24, 2010 | Adview

A rapid-fire series of radiation-related events, beginning in mid-2009 and continuing into 2010, culminated in the recent bombshell that the FDA would begin regulating medical radiation. Both the industry and the specialty continue to reverberate. Although these recent events were accompanied, and possibly fanned, by some confused and histrionic reporting... Read More »

Preparing for Potential Reform: The Hospital View

January 18, 2010 | Imaging Futures

Some proponents of national health care reform expect to pop the champagne corks any day now in celebration of getting a bill through Congress. Meanwhile, some administrators of hospitals and imaging departments expect to pop the lids off aspirin bottles so that they can begin nursing the headaches caused... Read More »

Using Next-generation IT Tools to Improve Appropriateness

January 10, 2010 | Data Central

It might well have been the unofficial theme of RSNA 2009 in Chicago, Illinois: “You can’t change what you can’t measure.” Opening his December 2 session on health IT with those very words, Ramin Khorasani, MD, outlined how next-generation IT tools can be leveraged by radiology... Read More »

Too Big to Understand

December 21, 2009 | The Big Picture

I just finished reading the new book about last year’s financial near meltdown, Too Big to Fail (Viking, 2009), by Andrew Ross Sorkin. The book’s several hundred pages of behind-the-scenes narrative leading up to and immediately following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 were instructive on several... Read More »

Window on 2010: Impact of Imaging-Specific Health Care Reforms

December 21, 2009 | Legislative Report

Since the dawn of the DRA at the close of 2005, health care observers have predicted a follow-on DRA II. It appears that this prediction will come to pass shortly after the clock strikes midnight on December 31.

In a carefully considered presentation at the Gleacher Center... Read More »

Alternative Imaging Business Structures and Arrangements: What’s Legal?

December 01, 2009 | Feature

In recent years, the diagnostic imaging industry has served as a microcosm, of sorts, for the larger health care industry. Diagnostic imaging has seen rapid technological advances that have dramatically increased diagnostic capabilities and increased demand for services, as well as increases in both the number and types of... Read More »

Now, for Something Completely Different

December 01, 2009 | Adview

As I sit here trying to think of a way to wrap up a year of tremendous change in radiology, health care, and the economy at large, I understand that there is no way to turn 2009 into a neat package. Nevertheless, sifting through a year’s worth of content... Read More »

Malpractice Premiums: MIA in the Health Care Debate

December 01, 2009 | Opinion

Health reform efforts have developed into a heated and contentious debate. Despite the position of the AMA in favor of HR 3200 (America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009), physicians are, in fact, quite conflicted on the issue of health care reform. Many physicians are supportive of a single-payor system,... Read More »

Cost of Care to Elderly Soars

December 01, 2009 | Health Care Statistics

During the decade following 1996, the average annual cost of health care for those 65 and older increased 30%, according to a recent analysis.1 Medicare footed a larger percentage of the bill for the elderly, fueled in part by the implementation of Part D in 2006.

The data sources were the... Read More »

A Call to Action

December 01, 2009 | The Bottom Line

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... Read More »

The 50 Largest Radiology Practices

December 01, 2009 | Feature

Introduction by Joseph P. White, CPA, MBA

The second annual survey’s results are in, and I think you will find that they are representative of the larger groups in the country. We, of course, recognize that there are many large groups that chose not to participate... Read More »

Grassroots Coalition Puts Collaboration Above Competition

November 19, 2009 | Imaging Futures

The rival groups had targeted the same pool of patients in their marketing efforts, positioning their respective imaging facilities, in one of the most competitive markets in the country, as the best that the Big Apple had to offer. In July 2009, however, they put competition aside for a common... Read More »

ACR Economic Update: What to Expect From CMS in 2010

November 19, 2009 | Regulatory Report

While health reform is still a legislative preoccupation, where regulatory agencies are concerned, the train has left the station, according to Maurine Spillman-Dennis, MPH, MBA. Spillman-Dennis is a senior director in the economics and health policy division of the ACR®, and she presented an economic update from the college... Read More »

Sunshine Bill Renews Focus on Conflicts of Interest

October 14, 2009 | Legislative Report

While health care players and politicians have long debated the issue of medical transparency, deeper scrutiny of physician–industry relationships has produced a general consensus on one aspect of the dispute: The climate has changed.

Thomas Hoffman, JD, associate general counsel for the ACR®,... Read More »

Health Care Efficiency: No Miracle Cure

October 14, 2009 | Think Tank

Health care reform ideas are everywhere these days. As a radiologist, I’m all for controlling costs—but I challenge the assumption that national electronic medical records (EMRs) will magically make providers more informed and automatically decrease unnecessary tests.

It sounds great, but the idea and, at... Read More »

DRA II: CMS Proposes Slashing the Technical Component Again

October 02, 2009 | Priors

A proposed 90% equipment-utilization formula and brand-new lowball practice-expense data courtesy of the AMA will deal radiology a new round of cuts comparable to those contained in the DRA. The specialty faces dramatic cuts to the technical component in the proposed 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS), and these have triggered... Read More »

Now, the OIG Takes Aim

October 02, 2009 | Adview

In its annual work plan for 2010,1 published October 1, the OIG has indicated more than a passing interest in the specialty of radiology, announcing no less than four imaging-specific initiatives that it intends to pursue in 2010. Two of the agenda items fall into the milder category of inquiries and are... Read More »

Isotope Shortage Hinders Nuclear Medicine

September 11, 2009 | Imaging Futures

It was the worst news that the nuclear-medicine community could receive when, on August 12, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL), Chalk River, Ontario, announced that the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor would remain shut down until at least January 2010. The 51-year-old reactor, which has been inoperative since May owing... Read More »

OIC Reimbursement: The Multipronged Attack

September 11, 2009 | Revenue Track

In an illustration used for hospital clients, analyst Shay Pratt pinpoints imaging centers for sale around the country: four independents on the market in California, a four-center chain in Kansas, and a larger chain in central Florida with an asking price of $22.5 million. The list, with size and price... Read More »

Too Much Health Care?

September 11, 2009 | The Big Picture

Of all the issues facing today’s imaging executives and radiologists, none sounds more cacophonous than the nearly universal cry that the United States spends too much on its health care. We do, indeed, allocate quite a bit more to health care, at 16% or so of the gross domestic... Read More »

Radiology Braces for Change Ahead

September 10, 2009 | Feature

Some US employees still enjoy Cadillac-style health plans in which little is paid out of pocket and coverage includes almost every health need, but health care costs for its workers helped send Cadillac maker General Motors into bankruptcy. Moreover, for every worker or family with a Cadillac plan, there’... Read More »