August/September 2012

Practices, imaging centers, and hospital radiology departments continue to keep an eye on expanding their service lines and market reach. In part, this expansion is an effort to counteract the negative effects of declining reimbursements while meeting demands to provide better care. Mergers and acquisitions, as well as the procurement of equipment,

Despite serious reimbursement pressure, the imaging-center market appears to be on the move again, adding 131 sites as of the first quarter of 2012. While this year’s expansion does not approach the tremendous growth rates of the period between 2000 and 2008, when the market more than doubled (from 3,068 centers to 6,431), it does return the sector

On May 22, “Imaging and Accountability: Imaging’s Role in the Integrated Health Network” was presented at the RBMA 2012 Radiology Summit in Orlando, Florida. This discussion has been excerpted from the statements of that panel, which was composed of a practice-president radiologist, a hospital president, an imaging-chain executive, and an industry

August is the sweetest month. The Pacific Ocean is finally warm enough to swim in, the tomatoes are ripening faster than I can eat them, and I give myself permission to slow down a bit and to spend an extra half hour reading the newspapers in the morning.

Readers of this journal tend to be interested in the business of radiology. We recognize the priority of having efficient and effective practices, whatever future health-care environment evolves. Observers would probably agree that many radiology practices have successfully improved their operational performance as market forces have demanded more

In a landscape growing increasingly concerned with cost, quality, and results, strong leaders are needed to pave a path for the future of health care. Conventional wisdom dictates that leaders are born from a mix of experience and acquired skills. Given these requirements, managers are natural candidates, but not every manager has what it takes to

One of the leaders driving low-dose, high-quality pediatric imaging is the multisociety advocacy group Image Gently®. When the FDA¹ issued a draft guidance document for imaging-equipment manufacturers in May 2012, Keith Strauss, MSc—a member of the steering committee of the Alliance for Radiation Safety in Pediatric Imaging (the Image Gently

Engage in scenario planning to prepare for the changes ahead, Frank Lexa, MD, MBA, says. Lexa identifies six incontrovertible challenges that drove the adoption of health-care reform (and another six issues that will bedevil radiologists, moving forward) in “Healthcare Reform and the Future of Radiology: Navigating the Change,” which he presented

Physician groups figure prominently among 88 new accountable-care organizations (ACOs) added to the Medicare Shared Savings Program’s participants on July 1, 2012. With the latest announcement from CMS,1 154 organizations are now participating in the initiative, covering more than 2.4 million beneficiaries.

The rhetoric has been pretty hot as the presidential candidates face off in the final sprint to the finish line. Much of the discussion concerns the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but no small amount of attention has also been paid to a debate about the respective roles of business and government, beyond health care, in the broader