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.

NEMA Earns Support for Updated Standard to Protect Medical Devices Against Cybersecurity Threats

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has completed its Manufacturer Disclosure Statement for Medical Device Security (MDS2) – 2013 Standard, and the changes earned the support of not only its own Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA) division, but also the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)

Merge Chairman Steps Down After Bad Q2

Michael W. Ferro, Jr., chairman and board member for Chicago-based Merge Healthcare Inc., has resigned after another poor quarter for the company

ACR, ASNR Urged CMS to Accept Physicians Advice on New and Revised CPT Codes

In August, the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR) met with CMS officials to “reiterate and provide additional information” as to why they should accept the advice of the physician experts on Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) when updating Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes that relate to radiology

Kansas Radiologist Pleads Not Guilty in $7 Million Fraud and Bribery Case

Heidi Lynn Webster, MD, a former Army officer radiologist and founder of the defense contractors MRI Resources Inc. and Pro Veteran Staffing Inc., has pleaded not guilty to charges that she and two of her business partners conspired to defraud the government

MGMA Calls For Moratorium on Stage 2 Meaningful Use Penalties

Providers who purchased an electronic health record (EHR) system that has yet to be certified for Stage 2 of the Meaningful Use incentive program are in a fix and it is unfair to penalize them for not meeting Stage 2 requirements says the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA)

vRad Sues Competitors Over Patent Infringement

Teleradiology provider Virtual Radiologic (vRad) has filed a patent infringement suit against radiology technology and services company Tandem Radiology and two of its teleradiology customers, Direct Radiology and Imaging Advantage

Survey Finds Hospitals Spending Less on PET/CT Systems

The August Modern Healthcare/ECRI Institute Technology Price Index revealed a 27% drop in the average price paid by surveyed hospitals for PET/CT systems between May and June

Tech at Center of Hep C Outbreak Pleads Guilty

David Kwiatkowski, a radiology technician that infected at least 45 people with hepatitis C, has plead guilty in federal court to tampering with a consumer product and obtaining a controlled substance at Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire

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.