Imaging providers anxious to see if CMS will drop the proposed separate cost centers for CT and MRI from the final 2014 HOPPS fee schedule will have to wait a little longer

Sharp HealthCare (San Diego, California) has undertaken multiple initiatives aimed at implementing organizational and service improvements, as well as enhanced patient care and clinical outcomes. Its latest endeavor is the imminent addition of a PACS that will accommodate non–DICOM images and that, as such, will facilitate enterprise image sharing across specialties, modalities, and facilities (as well as with clinical entities outside its boundaries).

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated a constitutional challenge to Virginia’s medical certificate-of-need program, which makes it illegal to offer new medical services, or purchase certain types of medical equipment like CT scanners and MRI machines, without first obtaining permission from the government

Citing the findings of a study of urologists’ use of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) to treat prostate cancer, the Alliance for Integrity in Medicare (AIM) reiterated its call for a law to close the self-referral loophole for radiation therapy, advanced diagnostic imaging, anatomic pathology, and physical therapy services

The Pennsylvania House and Senate have both unanimously approved an act requiring the notification of breast density to patients who receive mammograms. The governor is expected to sign it into law

Radiologists Ernest Mckenzie, MD, and John Hamlin, MD, are suing the government to either stop the penalties that will be applied to radiologists for not meeting meaningful use requirements or make the government compensate radiologists for gathering patient history and physical data that they currently do not collect

A U.S. District judge has dismissed the whistle-blower lawsuit of an former compliance officer for Siemens Ltd. China, who alleged that he was fired for speaking out about Siemens participating in a kickback scheme to sell more diagnostic imaging equipment to Chinese and North Korean hospitals

Traditional Medicare was shielded from the 2% across-the-board cuts of sequestration, but not so for Medicare Advantage Plans. Add to this mandatory Affordable Care Act reductions to Medicare Advantage to bring its costs more in line with traditional Medicare, and it is no surprise that insurers who offer these plans are looking for ways to pass along the cuts to provider