The 65-radiologist Austin Radiological Association is well known for its robust information technology deployment throughout central Texas. Nonetheless, the practice’s billing department, which billed close to a million procedures last year, was awash in the same paper that plagues smaller, less sophisticated practices. Enter Laura Casey, business

Although block-leasing arrangements have become increasingly marginalized given recent Board of Medical Examiner decisions and a spate of high profile whistleblower cases, such arrangements clearly remain a target for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The latest volley in this war of attrition came in the guise of CMS’ proposed

In these Days of the DRA, imaging centers are keen to be lean. The question is, do you have your bases covered? In addition to strategies for cost savings and revenue enhancement, an imaging center with a need or desire to improve performance should review its organizational structure. Each position and person in the entity has roles and

The story of the 14-center imaging chain called Cypress Partners, LLC, [link to: http://www.cypresspartners.com/index.html] is a tale of two partners who honed their skills as hired guns at corporate entities operating in the diagnostic imaging space before becoming masters of their realm with their own imaging center company. Joe A. Paul, CPA, was

In a wide-ranging, in-depth analysis of the present and future outpatient imaging center market, Michael Silver, PhD, vice president, Sg2, Skokie, Ill, advised attendees at the 2nd Annual GE Healthcare Outpatient Imaging Center Conference in Washington to raise their business acumen to compete in a rapidly evolving marketplace.

Newt Gingrich understands the true issue facing imaging today. In fact, after hearing him speak recently about why diagnostic imaging got “mugged” by the DRA, I am convinced more than ever that our profession’s leadership needs focus, new ideas, and momentum. It is a theme that I have written and spoken about at length.

I had the opportunity to be guest at the strategic planning session for the Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA) a few years ago. This meeting consisted of the board members of RBMA and chairs of the various committees and at one point addressed the need of data in benchmarking for radiology groups and imaging centers.

In my 25 years of information technology (IT) management in four completely different industries (distribution, agricultural biotechnology, process manufacturing, and now health care), I have found that if IT is considered a strategic resource, rather than a pure cost-savings resource, the systems efforts will be more likely to succeed. Many times