On June 7, 2011, at the Annual Summit of the RBMA in New Orleans, Louisiana, four CEOs and one senior leader—representing all five radiology benefit management (RBM) companies—participated in a panel discussion during a general session, “Face to Face With RBM CEOs: Shaping the Dialogue for Imaging’s New Realities.” Look for coverage of that session

In his preview¹ in Health Affairs of the impending data deluge scheduled to begin with the transition to ICD-10 on October 1, 2013, Harris Meyer explains that the international disease-classification system dates back to 1763, when—in an act of altruism toward his fellow physicians—Francois Boissier de Sauvages de Lacroix (1706–1767) published a

There is bad news and good news for radiology, when it comes to meeting meaningful-use requirements, according to Keith Dreyer, DO, PhD, vice chair of radiology computing and information sciences at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston. In the Dwyer Lecture, “Meaningful Use in Medical Imaging: New Technologies for US Healthcare Reform,”

Radiology’s existing coding structure is undergoing a dramatic transformation, which is the product of numerous code screens being used by CMS and the RVS Update Committee to identify potentially misvalued services. The application of these code screens often results in the conversion of old codes to new codes. The conversion to new codes has

The June 2011 MedPAC Report to the Congress1 has the undivided attention of the entire specialty, just days after its release—for good reason. Pages 27 through 59 detail the commission’s recommendations to curtail further the amount of imaging occurring in medicine and to redistribute professional income from image-reading specialties to primary

The old adage “location, location, location”—meaning location is everything—doesn’t apply to health care expenditures. A new study indicates regional disparities in the cost of certain procedures, with patients paying up to 683% more for the same procedures, in the same town, depending on the provider that administered them.

Provisions for imaging cuts stipulated in the pending United States-South Korea Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act were removed late yesterday by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. The provisions would have increased the required equipment utilization rate for advanced diagnostic imaging equipment services, or the rate at which Medicare

Controlling overutilization of medical services — particularly costly services such as medical imaging — is something everyone seems to agree on but no one seems able to do under the fee-for-service system.