Clinical Decision Support: Planting a Decision Tree in Radiology

After a six-month period of collecting baseline data, the CMS Medicare Imaging Demonstration began on April 1, 2012. The imaging industry is watching this test closely. If the two-year demonstration shows that a computerized decision-support system can guide referring physicians to make appropriate orders for advanced imaging tests—and, at the same time, curtail inappropriate utilization—then a move to impose prior-authorization requirements for advanced imaging exams for Medicare patients might be headed off at the pass.

Even if the Medicare Imaging Demonstration fails to squelch a call from the Obama administration and its allies to use radiology benefit... Click here for more

The United State of Imaging in Tacoma

Located on the Puget Sound about 35 miles south of Seattle, Washington, the community of Tacoma and surrounding Pierce County benefit from a number of innovations that are linking local radiology providers in an uncommon collaboration. Through IT and service agreements across two competing hospital systems and two separate radiology groups, all parties report improvements in multiple areas of patient care.

It’s most notable that imaging-report turnaround times have dramatically improved in the emergency departments involved, where even small delays can mean the difference between life and death. Other quality indicators are being tracked and measured using... Click here for more

Radiologist–Hospital Alignment: Destabilization, Discord, and Accord

In March 2010, Sutter Health announced plans to sever a contract, in place for nearly a century, with Radiological Associates of Sacramento in California. Under its terms, the group had served five Sutter Health hospitals in the region. The previous year, Mercy Health Partners suddenly let lapse an equally established handshake agreement that it had maintained with Consulting Radiologists Corp to cover four hospitals in the Toledo, Ohio, area; a corporate provider of imaging services was brought in as a replacement. In 2008, Florida Hospital in Orlando announced that it would not renew its contract with a radiology group that had... Click here for more

Massachusetts and Health-care Reform: The Radiology Experience

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 PPACA—including the controversial individual mandate to buy insurance currently before the Supreme Court.

Jonathan Kruskal, MD, PhD, chair of radiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Boston, provided a guided tour through that journey on December 28, 2011, at the annual meeting of the RSNA in Chicago, Illinois.... Click here for more

Radiology and the IDN: The Big Shift

Growing your high-tech imaging business is just not the same game that it used to be, according to William Barta, corporate director of imaging services for Fairview Health Services (Minneapolis, Minnesota). “The days of patients coming to us just because they have to are gone,” he says. “It’s a whole different mindset from what health care used to be years ago. It really boils down to the economy, and health care is late to the game, from a sales perspective.”

He continues, “Disposable dollars are fewer, and gas prices are up; employers are expecting people to... Click here for more