Hospital giant expands homegrown outpatient imaging center chain into new state
Hospital giant Intermountain Health continues to expand its homegrown outpatient imaging center chain aimed at luring cost-conscious healthcare consumers.
Tellica Imaging is opening three new locations across Washington state in partnership with 13-hospital, Tacoma-based MultiCare Health System. The centers will span the communities of Auburn, Bremerton and Tacoma, accepting most insurance plans and offering fixed-rate pricing for all medical imaging services.
Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health first launched the Tellica brand in 2021 in a bid to better compete with freestanding centers that charge much less for imaging than hospitals. Tellica has estimated that the most patients typically pay out of pocket is about $400 for a CT and $600 for an MRI. This includes a radiologist read, related lab work and any necessary intravenous contrast.
“Given the high cost of healthcare for many … our goal is to create an affordable diagnostic imaging solution for our patients,” Tim Lynch, PharmD, MS, senior VP and chief administrative officer of MultiCare, said in a statement Oct. 3. “Tellica Imaging provides a high-touch, easily accessible retail experience.”
The brand now has over a dozen locations across four states, also including Idaho, New Hampshire and Utah. Intermountain noted previously that, without the overhead of a hospital, the cost is “significantly lower” at its centers. While radiology groups have been operating in this fashion for years, the Intermountain offshoot labeled Tellica as a “new model of care,” one that lowers costs, delivers imaging closer to home and helps “relieve the backlog of appointments at local hospitals.” The company previously announced a partnership with Boston-based BMC Health System to open centers on the East Coast.
“At Tellica Imaging, we are committed to access, affordability, quality and care,” Brad Isaacson, PhD, MBA, president and chief operating officer of Tellica Imaging, said in the same announcement. “Our imaging centers won’t just help patients, but it can also relieve the backlog of appointments at local hospitals for providers.”
As payers push imaging to less costly outpatient settings, Intermountain joins a growing number of hospitals opening their own options. South Carolina-based Prisma Health recently announced it was launching new non-hospital outpatient options, with centers in the communities of Greenville and West Columbia. Other hospital systems are going the partnership route. Investor-backed Outpatient Imaging Affiliates recently inked a deal with UConn Health in Connecticut to open the academic provider’s first freestanding imaging site. Publicly traded industry giant RadNet also has inked several joint ventures with large hospital systems.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.