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.

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The Offer We Couldn’t Refuse

When CMS asked the ACR® to create bundled codes for breast biopsy, the writing was on the wall

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Costs of ICD-10 Could Exceed Previous Estimates by 300%

A new study suggests that the cost of implementing the ICD-10 code set could be as much as three times previously estimated for physician practices, prompting the AMA to call for a two-year grace period for physicians.

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SDI–EVDI Merger Blankets Phoenix with Mega-Practice

Southwest Diagnostic Imaging (SDI) leap-frogged into the upper ranks of the nation’s largest practices this week by merging with East Valley Diagnostic Imaging in Mesa, Arizona, folding 100 radiologists into a mega-practice that covers the entire Phoenix metropolitan area.

Imaging Reimbursement: What We Knew Then and What We Know Now

VMG

As anyone who has been around medical imaging for any amount of time can tell you, the latest headwind is the same as it’s seemingly always been: reimbursement cuts.

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Navigating the MU Pathway: Stages 1 & 2

Sponsored by FUJIFILM Healthcare Americas

Join us for a presentation by the American College of Radiology's Michael Peters on what radiologists need to know to attest to Stages 1 and 2 of the federal Meaningful Use Program, followed by a Q & A session.

Imaging’s 2014 Merger/Acquisition Outlook: Responding to Reform

VMG

Marked by plenty of merger/acquisition activity, 2013 was a more tumultuous year in the imaging industry than anticipated, according to Todd Sorensen, CVA, a partner with health-care valuation and advisory company VMG Health.

Health-care Costs: Slow (but Steady) Growth Ahead

As citizens and the media debate the cost and growing pains associated with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Cuckler et al¹ (at the CMS Office of the Actuary) predict that aggregate health-care spending will grow at an average annual rate of 5.8% from 2012 to 2022, outpacing the projected growth rate of the US gross domestic product (GDP) by 1%. In 2022, nearly one-fifth of the GDP (19.9%) will be spent on health care, they estimate.

I Want It Anyway: Radiology’s Conundrum

Saying, “I want it anyway,” the ICU physician insisted that his patient with breast cancer should get an MRI exam to look for lung metastases. My years of experience as a radiologist did not dissuade him; such a test would be a poor way to evaluate his patient’s lungs, even under ideal circumstances (which hers were not). She was on a ventilator, incoherent, and unable to hold her breath, rendering the study a useless waste of time and money. More important, her lungs, just days earlier, had been clear on a chest CT exam—the gold standard for detecting lung nodules. We already knew that she had no lung metastases.

Around the web

The patient, who was being cared for in the ICU, was not accompanied or monitored by nursing staff during his exam, despite being sedated.

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.