Priors April/May 2009
April/May
STRATEGIC PLANNING
More is unknown than known about how the $19.2 billion allocated to health IT by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) will be awarded and who will be eligible to receive funds. Anyone interested in participating in the reinvention of health care through IT—including radiology private practices and hospital radiology departments—should begin planning a strategy immediately and take an active role in defining the terms contained in the legislation.
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April/May
PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
Medicare made more than $36 million in payments to more than 56,000 physicians who participated in the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative in 2007. That’s the good news. The bad news is that only about half—52%—of the physicians who participated got paid, Bibb Allen, MD, chair, ACR Commission on Economics, told attendees at a special focus session on Implementations of Pay for Performance: Implications for Radiology on December 1, 2008, at the annual meeting of the RSNA in Chicago.
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A recent statement from Moody's Investors Service, New York, indicates that the health care sector in the United States— traditionally thought to be among the most recession resistant-is now showing significant effects of the economic downturn. Disturbing news is also emerging of patients responding to family budget strains by forgoing important health care services. Unfortunately, this trend appears to be especially salient in populations that are among the most in need of regular preventive care (and that are most relevant to radiology practices), such as women and members of minority groups.
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Priors February/March 2009
Radiology stands on the cusp of the golden age of advanced visualization, with the two most commonly used high-tech modalities, CT and MRI, increasingly reliant on 3D reconstructions and 4D analysis for examination interpretation.
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February
STRATEGIC PLANNING
Historically, financial downturns have not affected the health care industry, but it is not so this time. Patients are deferring care or avoiding treatment completely; uncompensated care and bad debt are rising; and the...
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It's no secret that utilization control has emerged as the method of choice for private payors focused on reining in imaging costs. What is surprising is the speed...
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