October/November 2012

In looking at aggregate procedure counts in Medicare Part B medical imaging over the past eight years, the drama that unfolded between 2003 and 2010 is nowhere to be seen. Both rapid escalation in the imaging growth rate and a subsequent, nearly equivalent decline in volumes are lost in a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of –0.9% over eight years

Until a short time ago, Advocate Condell Medical Center (ACMC) in Libertyville, Illinois, was in the bottom quartile in customer satisfaction. Its growth was stunted, at best, and annual losses of $50 million had become the norm. The radiology department was a shambles.

Once again, there is an official implementation date for ICD- 10: October 1, 2014. In some circles, there is still much discussion as to whether this date, too, will be moved. While no one can predict the future in the ever-changing healthcare regulatory environment, it is highly unlikely that the date will be pushed further into the future, given

I suspect that physicians and other health-care providers who have dedicated their lives to health care find the whole patient-centered movement inherently irksome. Let’s face it: The movement implies that patients previously were not central enough to the work of caregivers. In fact, a case could be made that the exact opposite is true. Today,

It is time for radiology-group culture to change. We need to counter our negative stereotype. More than once, television dramas have portrayed radiologists as pseudophysicians or weird technicians sitting in dark rooms drinking coffee, an upside-down chest radiograph in the background.

With mounting pressure to curb the cost of health care, large medical groups need to prepare themselves for oncoming payment reform. Policymakers have been experimenting with different models, resulting in the CMS Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Model and the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). Providers are now being asked to

If on-site radiologists want to distinguish themselves from other image-reading specialists or teleradiologists, they must be more than image readers, according to Vijay Rao, MD, David C. Levin professor and radiology chair at Jefferson University Hospitals (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). On December 1, 2011, she presented “Value-added Services of

You know how good it feels. You finally did the right trade and now own Boardwalk and Park Place. Everyone who has the misfortune of landing on your block of expensive property pays through the roof, and you smile all the way to the bank. It is great fun owning a monopoly—unless, of course, you have those pesky regulators at your back, asking