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 Population-health Revolution

Sponsored by Hitachi Healthcare Americas

Any community under duress is likely to find itself plagued by disagreements, infighting, and polemicizing. It’s a normal response to a difficult situation—especially one in which there are no easy answers to the challenges being faced. I think of this each time that I attend management-focused meetings (such as those of the AHRA or the RBMA) in which nonclinician businesspeople point to radiologists as the source of imaging’s current problems; at clinical conferences, physician thought leaders cite the increased focus on business-based priorities, such as productivity and efficiency, as the real issue.

Senate Bill to Stop MPPR Picks Up Four New Cosponsors

Four additional senators — two Republicans and two Democrats, have signed on to S. 623, the Diagnostic Imaging Services Access Protection Act of 2013, which seeks to stop the multiple procedure payment reduction (MPPR) policy from being applied to the professional component of imaging services

FDA Panel Examines CT Colonography Value

CT colonography is less expensive and more preferred by patients compared to traditional colonoscopy for colon cancer screening, but the question of whether it is as good a test has so far kept it out of reach for most Medicare patients. An FDA panel examined this question on Monday

New Cancer Study Supports Annual Mammograms Starting at 40

A failure analysis of more than 7,000 breast-cancer deaths published online by the journal Cancer has found that 71 percent of the confirmed breast cancer deaths occurred in the 20 percent of the study population that did not receive regular mammograms. In addition, the women who died tended to be younger than 50

MGMA Survey Finds IT Costs Rising for Practices

The promise of cost savings from health care reform and EHR implementation may still be a ways away judging by a new survey from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA)

Radiation Oncologist Accused of Stealing ACR Cancer Research Funds

According to California’s Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, Tri Minh Do, MD, embezzled $46,000 in ACR funding meant to reimburse Valley Medical Center in San Jose for prostate cancer research and used it pay personal bills

vRad Names New Chief Solutions Officer

Minneapolis-based radiology and telemedicine company Virtual Radiologic (vRad) has named David C. Trachtenberg as its new chief solutions officer. Trachtenberg will be responsible for vRad’s marketing programs, as well as product development.

Unique Device Identifier Rule Could Impact Imaging Equipment Costs

The FDA proposed rule that all medical devices distributed in the United States carry a unique device identifier (UDI) will come with a cost says one presenter at the upcoming UDI Conference 2013

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.