Unfunded federal mandates, the elimination of Medicare payment for physician consultations, and incompatible and inconsistent quality initiatives offer a roadmap for the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) to make strategic changes that benefit the entire Medicare system, according to a letter sent to CMS by the American Medical

Aycan Medical Systems late last week announced that it has received CE clearance to market its mobile imaging app in Europe and is awaiting FDA clearance to do the same in the U.S.

Cloud-based storage requires evaluation, just as any other storage strategy does, according to James T. Whitfill, MD, CIO of Scottsdale Medical Imaging Ltd (SMIL) in Arizona. “You have to understand how the cloud provider replicates data to different locations, so you trust that there really are multiple copies of those data; that they are kept

Results of a study¹ released in Chicago, Illinois, during the 2010 annual conference of the RSNA confirm what many in both the radiology and emergency-medicine communities already knew: Utilization of imaging in the emergency department has exploded. According to the Radiology study,¹ emergency-department visits that included CT imaging increased

As the trend of consolidation among imaging centers continues, RadNet, Inc (Los Angeles, California) is at the leading edge, having added 24 freestanding outpatient centers in 2010 alone. The company, founded in 1984, today owns and/or operates a network of more than 200 quality-oriented, cost-effective facilities, and it is poised to continue

On April 1, 2011, the DHHS released its proposed new rules for accountable-care organizations (ACOs), putting in motion provisions of the health-reform package aimed at improving patient care through better coordination among providers. With the ACO program set to launch in January 2012—following a period during which stakeholders can comment on

There are multiple factors that might lead a radiology group to consider restructuring, but the majority of changes to a group’s governance are prompted by breakdowns in communication. This issue becomes particularly prevalent as groups expand; a single-site, hospital-based group of radiologists is able to handle critical decision making in a

While I have used this space to discuss the impact of consolidation on the business of medical imaging, another indicator that the marketplace is maturing is the methodical erosion of profit margins in virtually every segment of the distribution of goods and services. I take that back: The insurance-company payors do not seem to be sharing as much