The California Radiological Society has come out in opposition of a bill that would put new limitations on balance billing in California. Assembly Bill 533 would stop physicians out of a patient’s network from billing that patient for care provided at an in-network facility. 

The Supreme Court has announced its decision in the case of King v. Burwell, ruling, 6-3, that the federal subsidies found within the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are constitutional. 

The headline-grabbing sweep just last week that involved 243 arrests and $712 in false billings highlights the fact that the federal government has put a lot of time and money into cracking down on healthcare fraud in recent years: This focus on healthcare fraud affects radiologists and technologists more than they may realize.

Apple used to push the world to “think different.” Today, the profession of radiology is being driven to think differentiation. And the impetus is issuing not from a single corporation, but rather from myriad market forces—from commoditization to consolidation to, perhaps most pressingly, ever-narrowing profit margins.

Through the exceptionally tight partnership of vRad Chief Medical Officer, Ben Strong, MD, and Chief Information Officer, Shannon Werb—explored in Part I of this interview—vRad has achieved a synergistic melding of those concepts that truly are driving clinical innovation, as evidenced by the discussion with Strong and Werb.

If you really want to know how a scanner is performing, talk to the technologist.

The House has voted, 244-154, in favor of a bill that repeals the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a cost-cutting panel first created as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The vote comes less than a week after the House voted to repeal another piece of the ACA, the 2.3% medical device tax.

Medicare-eligible hospitals and professionals that failed to demonstrate meaningful use (MU) through the Medicare EHR Incentive Program or Medicaid EHR Incentive Program in 2014 can expect a -2% Medicare payment reduction for 2016, but most radiologists will be granted hardship exceptions.