Business Intelligence

Providers utilize business intelligence to monitor referral patterns and collaborate with clinicians who order their services. Such analytics tools have also been deployed in the specialty to improve productivity, track patient satisfaction and bolster quality.

Fair Market Value Versus Investment Value in Imaging: Understanding Standards

VMG

The standard of value must be established in performing a valuation of any imaging business. The standard of value defines the hypothetical conditions under which a valuation will be performed. These hypothetical conditions affect many of the underlying assumptions that an appraiser or valuator would employ in establishing a value opinion.

Redefining the Radiology Group: New Approaches and Roles

Optimal

At the 2013 annual meeting of the AHRA, held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Chad Calendine, MD, CMO of Optimal Radiology Partners, presented “Radiologist As the Chief Marketing Officer” on July 28. The focus of his session was how radiology groups can enhance their value and visibility to the rest of the health-care continuum; Calendine believes that radiologists should more aggressively market themselves to stakeholders ranging from patients and referring clinicians to hospital administration.

The Population-health Revolution

Sponsored by Hitachi Healthcare Americas

Any community under duress is likely to find itself plagued by disagreements, infighting, and polemicizing. It’s a normal response to a difficult situation—especially one in which there are no easy answers to the challenges being faced. I think of this each time that I attend management-focused meetings (such as those of the AHRA or the RBMA) in which nonclinician businesspeople point to radiologists as the source of imaging’s current problems; at clinical conferences, physician thought leaders cite the increased focus on business-based priorities, such as productivity and efficiency, as the real issue.

Senate Bill to Stop MPPR Picks Up Four New Cosponsors

Four additional senators — two Republicans and two Democrats, have signed on to S. 623, the Diagnostic Imaging Services Access Protection Act of 2013, which seeks to stop the multiple procedure payment reduction (MPPR) policy from being applied to the professional component of imaging services

FDA Panel Examines CT Colonography Value

CT colonography is less expensive and more preferred by patients compared to traditional colonoscopy for colon cancer screening, but the question of whether it is as good a test has so far kept it out of reach for most Medicare patients. An FDA panel examined this question on Monday

New Cancer Study Supports Annual Mammograms Starting at 40

A failure analysis of more than 7,000 breast-cancer deaths published online by the journal Cancer has found that 71 percent of the confirmed breast cancer deaths occurred in the 20 percent of the study population that did not receive regular mammograms. In addition, the women who died tended to be younger than 50

MGMA Survey Finds IT Costs Rising for Practices

The promise of cost savings from health care reform and EHR implementation may still be a ways away judging by a new survey from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA)

Radiation Oncologist Accused of Stealing ACR Cancer Research Funds

According to California’s Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, Tri Minh Do, MD, embezzled $46,000 in ACR funding meant to reimburse Valley Medical Center in San Jose for prostate cancer research and used it pay personal bills