Business Intelligence

Providers utilize business intelligence to monitor referral patterns and collaborate with clinicians who order their services. Such analytics tools have also been deployed in the specialty to improve productivity, track patient satisfaction and bolster quality.

Former U of Iowa Radiologist Faces New Charges

Malik Juweid, M.D., has been in a prolonged dispute with his former employer, the University of Iowa, and now faces new charges after failing to complete a state-ordered mental and physical evaluation

CMS Updates Imaging Equipment Maintenance Standards for Hospitals

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will continue to mandate that hospitals service medical equipment, including imaging and radiation therapy equipment, according to the device manufacturer’s standards

Providers Lose Appeal Over Insurer's MPPR Policy Change

North Carolina advocates for health care providers have lost an appeal in a case centered on multiple procedure payment reductions for radiologists

Joint Commission Publishes Updated Imaging Standards

Changes include stronger equipment maintenance standards, including requiring accredited organizations to have a qualified diagnostic medical physicist conduct annual equipment performance evaluations.

Zotec Earns RadNet Business

The deal puts two giants together. RadNet is the largest owner and operator of fixed diagnostic imaging centers in the United States and Zotec Partners is the radiology field’s leading provider of billing and practice management services.

New Orleans-Area Imaging Provider Adds More Centers

Diagnostic Imaging Services, based in Metairie, La., has acquired the Delta Imaging Center sites in Covington and Slidell, La., bringing its total number of independent imaging centers in the greater New Orleans area to five, reports New Orleans City Business

Alaska Imaging Provider Faces Certificate-of-Need Scrutiny After the Fact

State rules to regulate the health care market often pose a challenge to medical imaging facilities seeking to open a new location or expand their services. However, North Star Radiology in Fairbanks, Alaska, is in the unique situation of seeing their existing business being examined by the state’s Department of Health and Social Services.

Two-Midnights Rule Reduces Hospital Admissions

A change in reimbursement rules designed to cut down on overuse of observations stays for Medicare patients has pushed hospital admission rates down to the lowest number seen in a decade on a monthly survey conducted by Citi Research

Around the web

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.

The all-in-one Omni Legend PET/CT scanner is now being manufactured in a new production facility in Waukesha, Wisconsin.