The current environment in radiology is changing quickly—and the pace of change is accelerating. Radiologists are accustomed to change. In fact, some would say that radiology is the primary field of change, but never has the pace of change been so rapid. In addition to the new technological developments that are revolutionizing the way that we

Health-care reform is here, and it’s the DRA all over again (but on steroids). Adjustments to the RVU for equipment utilization have increased from 50% to 62.5% for 2010 and will be capped at 75% for 2011 (for MRI and CT only). On July 1, the reduction in CT, MRI, and ultrasound technical-component reimbursement for contiguous imaging increased

Alliance HealthCare Services, which operates 120 fixed-site imaging centers and provides mobile advanced diagnostic imaging services to over 1,000 hospital customers across the US, recently purchased a controlling interest in teleradiology services provider Radiology 24/7. The company provides subspecialty final reads across all modalities to

On August 23, Virtual Radiologic (vRad), Eden Prairie, Minn, and New York’s S&D Medical, a 60-person radiology practice based in Bedford, NY, announced the launch of a new strategic alliance. Merging S&D with a vRad-affiliated medical practice, the partnership will form a new group called the New York Radiology Alliance, which will serve the New

Radiologic technologist vacancy rates at radiology facilities across the United States continue to decline across all disciplines, according to data collected in the annual Radiology Staffing Survey from the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT). The survey included questions regarding the staffing at each facility, demographics,

Having cold water dashed in one’s face can result in spluttering, but it can be welcome when an effective wake-up call is needed. Both reactions to a 2010 article¹ abstract on patient-centered radiology might be expected; the authors deliver a sometimes-harsh assessment of radiology’s shortcomings, but they also offer concrete suggestions that

Six-hospital Daughters of Charity Health System (DOCHS), Los Altos Hills, California, was facing a problem increasingly familiar to providers of imaging services (and particularly to multihospital networks): It was becoming too expensive and difficult to manage its long-term image archive. All archived images were stored in hospital-managed data

CMS released the 2011 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) in July, proposing myriad changes that CMS notes would result in a 6% payment cut for radiology services. That reduction doesn’t include the impact of the 23% cut that will take place on December 1, when this year’s temporary 2.2% payment update expires—or the additional 6.1% cut