Management

This page includes content on healthcare management, including health system, hospital, department and clinic business management and administration. Areas of focus are on cardiology and radiology department business administration. Subcategories covered in this section include healthcare economics, reimbursement, leadership, mergers and acquisitions, policy and regulations, practice management, quality, staffing, and supply chain.

The Shifting Landscape of Cardiac CT Angiography Reimbursement

Many imaging providers have been wishing for changes in reimbursement policies for cardiac CT angiography (CCTA) for some time. Changes are about to be made, but those wishes may not be granted. In December 2007, CMS proposed major restrictions on coverage for CCTA that could take effect as early as March 2008. The conclusions that CMS discussed in

Marketing the OIC: Is It Time to Go Directly to Patients?

Across the nation, outpatient imaging centers (OICs) are looking for ways to protect what they have built and ways to grow. Protection strategies usually involve shoring up relationships with key referrers and ensuring that the practice brand is established and being supported in every department.

How Managed Care Targets Imaging Centers—and How to Fight Back

Sponsored by Hitachi Healthcare Americas

With the cost of advanced imaging technology always on the rise and reimbursement continually declining, now, more than ever, it is crucial that imaging centers negotiate optimal managed care contracts. Unfortunately, managed care is currently targeting imaging centers, owing to concerns about overutilization and escalating costs. How can imaging

Improving Gadolinium-based Contrast Safety

It is clear that gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCA) for MRI improve detection (sensitivity), characterization (specificity), disease staging, and diagnostic confidence levels. It has also become clear that nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) is associated with their use in patients with preexisting kidney disease. For radiology, the challenge

Q & A With Doyle Rabe: Leading Texas-sized Austin Radiological Association

Sponsored by FUJIFILM Healthcare Americas

When it comes to size and influence, Austin Radiological Association (ARA) has few peers. The practice of 72—and soon to be more—radiologists employs 700 people (580 FTEs) in Austin. In addition to covering every one of the 16 hospitals in central Texas, ARA archives most of the radiological images generated at those sites on its regional PACS. The

Consolidation Ahead: Imaging Mergers and Acquisitions

Over the past 10 years or so, there have been distinct phases in mergers and acquisitions in the medical imaging market. At the turn of the millennium, there was optimism about the state of the market, and consolidation was taking place at the volume that was to be expected, based on the conditions of the time.

Process Automation: The Key to Improved Financial Performance

The high procedural volumes associated with radiology provide both a challenge and an opportunity. The old days of handling paper persist to varying degrees, but organizations investing in technology to automate common processes have demonstrated an ability to improve productivity and profitability while decreasing associated costs. This is

The Flat World Imperative

In a world where a radiologist in Bombay can interpret an x-ray from Buffalo, the Mayo Clinic’s Stephen Swensen, MD, maintains that quality is the only way to distinguish a radiology service. In the February issue of Imaging Economics, Swensen makes the business case for quality and describes the Mayo Clinic approach. Why does a continuous quality

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.