The Internal Revenue Service is moving toward a more flexible approach when evaluating contacts between tax-exempt entities—such as many hospitals—and private, for-profit entities such as radiology groups.

The FDA is stepping up its focus on quality assurance in breast imaging by adding three questions to their annual Mammography Quality Standards Act (MQSA) inspections, starting in 2017. Radiology administrators should be aware of these changes, but they don’t have to feel blind-sided by them—the FDA won’t issue citations for violations until 2018.

The legislative impact of a Donald Trump presidency is hard to predict, but it certainly muddles the future for some healthcare legislation, according to Chris Sherin, Director of Congressional Affairs at the American College of Radiology.

CMS released its final ruling on the 2017 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) at the beginning of November, and radiologists will benefit from the changes.

Mary Mahoney, MD, spoke with imagingBiz about what life is like as a department chair and shared her thoughts on several hot topics affecting breast imaging today.

The American College of Radiology has released an updated list of the 2017 Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes relevant to radiology. Care providers should review the changes before they take effect Jan. 1, 2017. 

The final ruling on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) was released in early October and, while there were some positive surprises for radiologists, hospitals and imaging centers need to work to ensure compliance in billing and reporting. Lack of knowledge about the looming changes, an uneven playing field with payors and the shift from volume to value could all undercut profitability at an imaging practice.   

A greater number of imaging specialists may be able to take advantage of the “non-patient facing” exemption outlined in the final ruling on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), released today by CMS.