Noted radiologist partners with urology practice coalition, expanding access to IR services nationwide
A coalition of independent urology practices has inked a partnership with one noted radiologist as it seeks to expand access to interventional services nationwide.
The Urology Management Alliance is teaming with IR Centers, a platform company dedicated to offering minimally invasive procedures in outpatient settings. With the “preferred strategic partnership,” the national network of independent urology groups will roll out prostate artery embolization (PAE) and other IR services to members across the country.
Urology groups have increasingly looked to add PAE after the American Urological Association updated its clinical guidelines to endorse the procedure in 2023. It involves guiding a catheter through an artery to inject tiny particles that block the blood flow to an enlarged prostate, causing it to shrink.
“This agreement reflects our shared commitment to advancing urologic care in partnership with the most forward-thinking organizations in the country,” radiologist Sandeep Bagla, MD, founder and CEO of Falls Church, Virginia-based IR Centers, said in a statement Sept. 15. “[The Urology Management Alliance] has built a powerful network of clinically excellent, independently operated urology groups. By aligning with IR Centers, they gain access to scalable tools, unified service lines, and national leadership in minimally invasive treatment of [benign prostatic hyperplasia], joint pain and other conditions.”
Bagla and colleagues said the agreement will expand access to IR Centers’ embolization services, streamline management support for affiliated urology groups, deliver operational efficiencies and bolster access to technology. Urology Management Alliance-affiliated practices will have access to the IR group’s outpatient management services, with structured incentives for them to migrate interventional operations to the IR Centers model. This will allow urologists to “unlock economies of scale,” utilize advanced clinical and business tools, and take part in a “coordinated national infrastructure.”
IR Centers said the urology group alliance also will be able to use its proprietary software platform, ChartlensIQ. The tool delivers electronic health records-integrated, artificial intelligence-driven navigation, along with revenue cycle management and patient outcome analytics in a single platform. Other perks include onboarding, credentialing support, technology integration and operational coordination “tailored for IR-urology collaborations.”
“This partnership brings together two organizations aligned around quality, innovation and independence,” Mike Shannon, CEO of Jeffersonville, Indiana-based First Urology and a member of the UMA Board, said in a statement. “IR Centers has demonstrated national leadership in outpatient interventional radiology, and this agreement gives UMA practices access to a trusted partner that can scale with us—clinically and operationally.”
IR Centers now lists 35 locations on its website, with the company also partnering with orthopedists and gastroenterologists to similarly help them offer minimally invasive, image-guided options. In previously announced arrangements, IR Centers has said it manages outpatient centers for these other specialties and handles billing. In the case of one partner, the Michigan Institute of Urology, MIU pays a fee to the IR group as part of a managed services agreement.
Some interventional radiologists have expressed concern about these arrangements. Adam Lustig, MD, a Virginia-based IR, said he worries radiologists are losing lucrative embolization procedures to other specialties, leaving IRs with little left on their plate.
“There is no ‘partnering’ going on with this model,” Lustig told Radiology Business in March. “This model is taking clinical decision-making and control of patients out of the hands of independent interventional radiologists, undermining the specialty, and reducing interventional radiologists to nothing more than ... technicians, employed by nonradiology and noninterventional radiology practices.”
Meanwhile, Bagla—who also leads the related Prostate Centers USA, the “network partner” of IR Centers—has disputed claims such partnerships harm the specialty. He contends the model increases IRs’ value while expanding the overall population they can impact.
“This partnership will accelerate our mutual growth while helping more patients avoid invasive surgery, extended downtime and unnecessary hospitalizations,” Bagla said Monday. “We are aligned on patient-first care, and we are just getting started.”
IR Centers now boasts a team of over 40 radiologists and is seeking additional docs across multiple cities, according to a job posting on the Society of Interventional Radiology’s website. The Urology Management Alliance, meanwhile, represents 180 providers and counting since its establishment in 2024.
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.