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.

Department of Energy Lab Develops Way to Image Moving Subjects

The technology could allow brain imaging of patients such as infants, children or adults with conditions that make holding still without restraints and anesthesia difficult

Merge Seeks to Refinance Debt

Merge Healthcare Inc. has commenced a cash tender offer for any and all of its $252 million outstanding aggregate principal amount of 11.75% Senior Secured Notes due 2015

Hawaii Passes Breast Density Legislation

Starting on January 1, 2014, all mammography providers in Hawaii must inform women with dense breast tissue about their breast density status at the time they deliver mammography results.

MITA “Disappointed and Surprised” by CMS PET Decision Memo

CMS’ Proposed Decision Memo for Positron Emission Tomography (FDG) for Solid Tumors crept under the radar last month, but strong reactions from industry associations are finally surfacing.

WSJ Highlights RSNA’s Image Share Efforts

The Wall Street Journal took a break from writing about all that is wrong with the economics of health care delivery to highlight something that is right — the efforts of radiologists to reduce duplicate scans through image sharing and make it easier for patients to get second opinions.

New York Times Blasts Medical Device Industry

The efforts of organizations like the Medical Imaging Technology Alliance (MITA) to end the medical device tax that went into effect this year drew the sharp rebuke of the New York Times' editorial board.

Massachusetts Bill Seeks to Make Mammography Facilities Responsible for Breast Density Education

As Massachusetts joins the ranks of states weighing legislation requiring mammography patients to be informed if they have dense breast tissue, the state also is streamlining the process by requiring imaging facilities—not physicians—to communicate information about breast density to patients at the completion of a mammogram.

Intermountain Agrees to $25.5M Stark Settlement

Begging the question of where alignment ends and payola begins, Intermountain Healthcare, Salt Lake City, Utah, has agreed to pay the government $25.5 million to settle charges that it paid referral-based bonuses to physicians, as well as other forms of compensation illegal under the Stark laws.

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.