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.

Philips Signs $300 Million Deal with Georgia Regents Medical Center

The agreement with the not-for-profit 478-bed Medical Center was promoted by Philips and Georgia Regents as an innovative response to a changing health care marketplace

Bill Introduced to Reduce Influence of Specialists on Medicare Physician Rates

Concerned that having physicians sit on the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) that examines Medicare physician fee schedules could be a conflict of interest and might encourage higher specialist fees, Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) has introduced a bill to create an independent panel of experts to review physician reimbursement

Michigan Proposes Regulating Imaging Equipment and Techs

A bill introduced in the Michigan state legislature would grant it new powers in overseeing the use of radiology equipment within its borders

Oregon Becomes 11th State to Pass Breast Density Legislation

Governor John Kitzhaber (D) has signed Senate Bill 420 into law, making Oregon the 11th state to require providers to inform women with dense breast tissue that this may make mammography results harder to read

SEC Files Suit Against Imaging3 for Allegedly Misleading Investors

In a lawsuit filed on June 25, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission says that Dean Norman Janes, CEO of Imaging3, intentionally kept investors in the dark about the true reasons why the FDA turned down his company's application to market its Dominion Volumetric Imaging Scanner

NLST Data Reveals CT Lung Cancer Screening Could Be Cost Effective

As the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force weighs guidelines and uniform reimbursement policies regarding the use of low-dose CT scans for lung cancer screening, the question of whether the test is cost effective is the elephant in the room

Canon Subsidiary Wins $111 Million Government Contract

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Logistics Agency is renewing its contract with Virtual Imaging Inc of Deerfield, Fla. — a Canon subsidiary

Tenet to Acquire Vanguard Health in $4.3 Billion Deal

The acquisition will create a health care system encompassing 79 hospitals and 157 outpatient facilities spread over 16 states

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.