Community hospitals, like their larger counterparts, continue to encounter financial challenges as they strive to deliver cutting-edge imaging services. For some institutions, engaging a full-service teleradiology provider could result in cost savings.

Harris County Hospital District (HCHD) is the public health-care system for the nation’s third most populous county (Harris County, Texas); with 44 locations, it generates 420,000 radiology procedures and 70,000 cardiology procedures each year. When HCHD made the decision to expand its electronic medical record (EMR) to include PACS and other

Under the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) of 2008, those sites providing the technical component of advanced imaging must have accreditation by 2012—but not all imaging centers are waiting for the deadline. A case in point is that of the Frye Care Outpatient Imaging Center, which is operated by the Frye Regional Medical

As radiology practices nationwide look for new revenue streams to compensate for ever-declining reimbursement, the answer might be getting back to basics, according to Greg Thomson and Dan Simile Jr of Medical Management Professionals, Inc (MMP), Atlanta, Georgia. In the first installment of a four-part series on critical business principles,

Marketing radiology services can represent a significant challenge, particularly in an increasingly consumer-driven medical marketplace, where outreach to patients requires reconfiguring a familiar line of messaging. Nancy McNee Newell, vice president of marketing for Diagnostic Health Corp (DHC), Birmingham, Alabama, calls it the softer side of

Alicia VasquezDeclining technical revenues have become a way of life for imaging practices, but that doesn’t mean that they are taking the situation lying down: “Having a proactive stance and an ongoing application of strategies to compensate for decreases, head on, is a must for facilities with a will to survive,” according to Michael Bohl,

Don Trexler, CEO of Baton Rouge Radiology Group (BRRG) in Louisiana, wants his practice to be different from a typical imaging group. “We’re a full-service radiology firm,” he says. “The radiology market, in general, is becoming more and more price conscious. To be in a leadership position when it comes to contract negotiations, we have to make it

From May 2007 to January 2008, an Atlanta, Georgia-based radiologist signed and submitted thousands of reports in his name, with one major caveat—he didn’t review a single one. Instead, he delegated the work to his radiology practitioner assistants (RPAs), who interpreted the exams and prepared the reports. In November 2009, the US Department of