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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ask any health–IT executive for a synonym for change, and a probable response is merger/acquisition. The rapid pace of consolidation among physician practices, individual hospitals, hospital enterprises, and hospital-chain corporations has generated an unprecedented level of organizational, operational, and technological change.

It’s not a figment of your imagination: Radiology practices are getting larger via mergers/acquisitions. Hospitals are broadening their reach, using the same tactics, in their efforts to maintain regional influence.