The continuity of business is vital in any setting but even more so in hospitals when patient encounters and care delivery may be interrupted. Considering the importance of the work that is carried out in healthcare facilities, developing continuity of business plans at all points of patient care is completely essential.

Many radiology groups have already committed to meaningful use (MU) of health IT to reap the financial benefits of utilizing electronic health records, but a high percentage remain on the sidelines. Some of the reluctance could be attributed to the belief that the cost will outweigh the benefit, but that disregards the fact that referring physicians who have attested will need to connect with specialty providers for phase 2 in order to continue complying with the program.

When Atlanta-based The Radiology Group was founded in 2006, it looked like a traditional private radiology practice, albeit a family affair. Anand Lalaji, MD, a musculoskeletal radiologist, his wife Tejal Lalaji, MD (a neuroradiologist and breast imager) and his father-in-law Mahendra Patel, MD, (a body imager) grew the practice over the subsequent three years into a thriving enterprise with multiple hospital and imaging center clients in Northeast Georgia. 

Contrary to the recent technical reimbursement cuts this year, which have negatively impacted diagnostic imaging operators, professional reimbursement for the same CPT codes have experienced a stable to slight decline; although, in some instances there was an increase. Modalities such as Computed Tomography (“CT”) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (“MRI”) experienced technical reimbursement declines between 1 percent and 45 percent. For many freestanding imaging operators relying heavily on governmental payors, without an increase in volume and/or expense reductions, the technical reimbursement declines directly impact the operating earnings of the business. 

Serving the community of upstate New York’s Capital Region, Adirondack Radiology Associates (ARA) recently expanded patients’ access to state-of-the-art, high-field open bore MR imaging technology, replacing two systems, an older low-field open system and a closed 1.5T system, with the Hitachi Oasis high-field open MR at their Saratoga Imaging Center. Since the installation, ARA has experienced an increase in procedure volumes and patient satisfaction as well a reduction in costs. 

Radiology business managers help practices thrive in our challenging health care climate. They possess a level of sophisticated business experience sought out by radiologists who are being forced to take time away from patient care to attend to the business responsibilities of the practice. However, a business manager who steps in to handle these duties and alleviate the pressure on physicians still needs to approach them to obtain buy-in on various major practice decisions. The larger the practice, the more daunting this task can appear. David Myrice, director of practice management for Zotec Partners, walks us through the important steps in obtaining radiologist buy-in on important practice decisions.

Radiology’s new normal is an ongoing perfect storm of business pressures. Faced with the constant need to navigate swim-or-sink waters roiled by bundled payments, pay for performance and other models of financial risk-sharing—not to mention declining reimbursement, increased regulatory oversight and transparency on pricing and quality—forward-thinking practices are partnering with their competitors in new joint venture (JV) models.

As diagnostic imaging becomes even more complex, so, too, does the business of running a hospital. Margins are low, competition is high and hospitals are consolidating just to survive. Next-generation imaging solutions are emerging to take the industry to the next level. Industry visionaries have coined the term PACS 3.0 to describe the system of the future with patient-centric data and the fulfillment of anytime, anywhere access. But these visionaries have put the industry on notice that PACS 3.0 simply can’t be achieved without the ability to scale and interoperate with other systems. The burning question in the industry should be: how do we get from here to there?