CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator scaled back their requirements for demonstrating meaningful use of information technology in an 864-page final rule released yesterday, trimming by 20% the criteria physicians and hospitals are required to meet in order to receive HITECH funds for electronic health record system purchases.

Today’s medical-imaging profession is definitely not for the fragile and weak-kneed among our colleagues. It is becoming increasingly clear that navigating the constant changes and challenges that face the practice of radiology today will be the ultimate test of tenacity, perseverance, and creativity. We’re in the playoffs now, and the game is

A window of access to capital has opened for hospitals, according to Lisa Goldstein, because of the improvement in the debt markets seen over the past six to nine months. On June 23, 2010, at the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s ANI: The Healthcare Finance Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Goldstein presented “Navigating the 2010

According to a 2004 study by the American College of Healthcare Executives, only 21% of 722 hospitals routinely engaged in leadership-succession planning, compared with two out of three for-profit companies in other industries. Will Powley, senior consulting manager for GE Healthcare’s Performance Solutions group, Waukesha, Wisconsin, says that

Radiology has a storage problem, to put it lightly: Even as the data associated with a single cross-sectional imaging study increase dramatically, HIPAA requirements to ensure patient privacy remain as stringent as ever. At last year’s RSNA meeting, a new solution appeared on the horizon in the form of cloud storage—a concept that has gained

Integration has been a buzzword in the radiology community for some time, and the team at Valhalla, New York-based Westchester Medical Center (WMC) knows why. “We used to have PACS, RIS, and voice recognition all working separately from one another,” Mike Seiler, director of radiology IT at WMC, explains. “Today, they’re all tightly integrated. We

The familiar, contentious debate surrounding Medicare’s sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula came to a temporary close on June 24, when the House of Representatives, by passing HR 3962, finally agreed to a Senate plan to put off a 21.3% decrease in payment rates. The payment fix is only effective through November 30, however, ensuring yet another

As the technology used for radiologic studies matures, providers and referrers are increasingly focused on providing patients with a friendlier imaging environment—with good reason, according to Tariq Gill, MD. “We need to make a conscious effort to make things nonthreatening,” he says. “In our community, we have three main hospitals, and each one