December 2010

With the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the health-care community is preparing for a tidal shift in how all providers are expected to perform. Hospitals and physicians increasingly will be held more accountable for ensuring that the key pillars of health-care reform are satisfied: improving the quality and

Automated decision-support systems to guide physicians who order advanced imaging exams for their patients have been promoted for years, but there have been few implementations. Now, CMS is launching a pilot study to see how well decision support works. It is the first test of decision-support systems applied on a national scale, and the first to

In the current climate of accountability, regulation, and continual improvement, radiology managers and administrators are called upon to make timely and informed decisions that affect the quality of their departments’ output (the radiology report) and the financial viability of their practices. Successful managers need a system of measurements

What happens when you cross a futurist and a radiologist?

In Los Angeles County, a 4,752–square-mile urban–suburban sprawl that is home to an estimated 10 million people, no one knows exactly how many acute strokes occur each year or how well they are managed. Nationwide, stroke is the number-three cause of death; stroke-related medical costs in 2010 are estimated at $73.7 billion.1

Those who know me even a little would never peg me as a Pollyanna, heroine of the 1913 novel of the same name by Eleanor H. Porter (1868–1920): a cheerful bundle of optimism with the gift of finding sunshine in even the darkest day. Even by those closest to me, I am perceived as critical, skeptical, and too particular to be positive (in my defense,

It can certainly be said that the past four years have not been the best of times for radiology practice managers. Since the enactment of the DRA, practices with significant imaging-center investments have seen margins slashed, year after year, with no end in sight.

The list of entities with imaging in their crosshairs goes on and on, but when it comes to eroding reimbursement and enhancing oversight, the current primary culprits are CMS and Congress, according to Maurine Spillman-Dennis, MBA, MPH, director of economics and government relations for the ACR®. In the “ACR Economic Update” presented on September

Health-care payment models are shifting, with providers taking on risk in the form of accountable-care organizations, bundled payments, impositions such as radiology benefit managers, and other strategies. At the same time, the Joint Commission has increased its requirements for proof of quality. There are increased regulations and controls, as

This article is the second in a series of three providing a background and primer to radiologists and imaging professionals interested in clinical trials. It offers background on regulatory approval and on the use of surrogate endpoints and imaging biomarkers, as well as touching on the administration of medical imaging in clinical trials.

An article by Smith et al,¹ published recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, forecasts an impending shortage of radiation oncologists, suggesting that the number of residents in training from 2014 through 2019 must double to meet demand. The authors modeled demand through 2020 (see table) by multiplying current utilization rates for

It is rather amazing, for those of us here at imagingBiz who hopefully envisioned this day, that it has arrived much sooner (and with much more definition) than we anticipated when we crafted the concept for Radiology Business Journal a few short years ago. The fact that we are bringing you a 76-page publication—in an era when many other