As initiatives for radiation-dose reduction take root in health systems and hospitals around the country—driven, in some cases, by state legislation mandating dose tracking and reporting—these organizations should be careful not to let messaging to patients fall by the wayside, according to Ian Judd, product manager for Sectra.

Despite a host of technical problems, more than 2 million people have already signed up for health coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) mandate.

Marked by plenty of merger/acquisition activity, 2013 was a more tumultuous year in the imaging industry than anticipated, according to Todd Sorensen, CVA, a partner with health-care valuation and advisory company VMG Health.

Like many people, Chris Tirabassi has watched the political parties duke it out over the relative merits of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. As practice administrator for CNY Diagnostic Imaging Associates LLC (Liverpool, New York), however, he has little time for philosophical discussion. Instead, Tirabassi is knee-deep in the meaningful-use mandates of the HITECH Act, as they apply to CNY’s Syracuse-area private practice of six radiologists.

In dissecting stage 2 of the meaningful-use program, Alberto Goldszal, MBA, PhD, drolly summarizes the meaningful-use challenge for radiologists: “In the meaningful-use rules, you are going to see some specific examples of things that are changing the radiology workflow that are perceived as a contraindication for radiology efficiency,” he says. “Overall, it does improve patient care—at least, that is the intended goal.”

For Colorado Springs Radiologists/PENRAD Imaging (Colorado Springs, Colorado), state-of-the-art imaging equipment and IT solutions have long supported a mission to offer top-tier patient care while maintaining a high degree of efficiency overall. A recent move to support this mission by replacing its RIS and billing systems has led the practice to the brink of Stage 1 meaningful use Stage 1 attestation, slated to occur shortly after January 1, 2014.

The recent upheavals in the world of health care have meant the arrival of new challenges with each passing year, and owing to imaging’s contributions to escalating costs, radiology has been especially hard hit in the past. 2014 will prove to be no exception, bringing a fresh slate of reimbursement and market challenges, according to Jeff Maze, director of business intelligence for Zotec Partners. “Understanding these issues, as well as their potential impact on the business of radiology, will be mission critical,” he says.

Our company is fortunate to have the opportunity to work with a large number of single and multisite imaging centers each year. This affords us the opportunity to observe and benchmark the financial and operating trends of a statistically significant sample size of imaging centers across the nation.