As we previously reported,¹ last fall, CMS published its supposedly final guidance² on place-of-service requirements for the professional and technical components of diagnostic tests. Transmittal 2563 (later replaced by Transmittals 2613 and 2679) revised the instructions contained in chapter 13 of the CMS manual system for Medicare claims processing. The most recent transmittal became effective on April 1, 2013. On April 25, CMS issued a frequently asked question (FAQ)3 set to respond to additional concerns about the place-of-service instructions. Among other clarifications in the FAQ list, CMS reported that it will be developing a national enrollment policy for telehealth and telemedicine services.

Fifteen years ago, when I first started to write about radiology, any attempt to manage or standardize the practice of medicine was met with resistance and derision. Notice that when putting together this issue, we ruled out calling our cover story, “Devising a Cookbook for Radiology.”

UnitedHealth, the nation’s largest insurer, told California state regulators that it would leave the California individual health insurance market, effective at the close of 2013. A similar move by Aetna last month leaves a combined 58,000 Californians shopping for coverage in a market that does not include the nation’s two largest insurance companies, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.

H.R. 2545, a bill to create an “independent” panel to advise on the relative value of physician services, repeats old and invalid criticisms of the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) said Geraldine B. McGinty, MD, chair of the ACR’s Commission on Economics and a member of the RUC

The Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute was set up in part to challenge wrong assumptions about the role of imaging in the rise in health spending, and the latest study from the Institute does just that

The AHRQ approval of the patient safety organization established by the Palmeto, Fla.-based network of radiology practices allows Strategic Radiology to move forward with the sharing of radiology safety and quality best practices

MemorialCare Medical Foundation, the physician group division of MemorialCare Health System in Southern California, has entered into a joint venture partnership with SimonMed, an imaging company, to operate five imaging centers in the counties of Los Angeles and Orange

The House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees on Friday released a more detailed version of their long-term proposal to remove the flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula for setting Medicare physician reimbursement