Economics

This channel highlights factors that impact hospital and healthcare economics and revenue. This includes news on healthcare policies, reimbursement, marketing, business plans, mergers and acquisitions, supply chain, salaries, staffing, and the implementation of a cost-effective environment for patients and providers.

Radiology contributes less than thought to the national healthcare spend

An analysis of CMS data has shown radiology had little to do with increases in Medicare costs over a 10-year period ending in 2019.

2 imaging AI vendors teaming up to present 1 point of sale

A healthcare AI platform supplier headquartered in Scotland is collaborating on marketing with a San Francisco-based AI startup co-founded and -led by a radiologist.

The ASNC is one of several medical imaging societies asking Congress to repeal the appropriate use criteria (AUC) criteria mandate. They say it poses issues for clinicians and is becoming outdated by changes in CMS payment systems. The AUC requirements call for documentation using CVMS authorized software in order to show advanced imaging such as nuclear and CT is justified, or else Medicare payments might be withheld.

VIDEO: AMA will ask Congress to revise clinical decision support mandate for cardiac imaging

American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) delegates to the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates 2022 meeting Stephen Bloom, MD, and Nishant Shah, MD, explain a new AMA policy asking Congress to revise its clinician decision support mandate. 

Radiologist pay, productivity jostled by pandemic recovery, CMS coding changes

Diagnostic radiology saw its median compensation rise just 1.6% from 2020 to 2021. On the other hand, interventional radiology enjoyed a 9.9% raise. 

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Pandemic’s hardest hit breast-care segment: Screening mammography

COVID-19 set back screening mammography further than any other category of breast care, dropping schedule adherence during infection peaks to 36% of pre-pandemic rates.

Technologist salary survey shows raises across all practice areas

MRI techs earned an average of $76,177 in 2019 and are making $82,395 in 2022. In fact, radiologic technologists across all modalities enjoyed a collective raise of 11.2% during that window.

Homegrown business curriculum teaches new rads how to ‘think like an MBA’

Harvard researchers have piloted a curriculum for instructing radiology trainees in the business of modern medicine. The teaching team says its program is adaptable by any academic radiology operation.

partnership business deal joint venture

Private-practice coalition adds another rad group

Florida-based Strategic Radiology announced the addition June 1, naming 11-radiologist Radiology Consultants of Lynchburg in Virginia as its 32nd member practice overall and its second in the Old Dominion state.

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.