Anticipating that Congress will once again overrule the 21% physician pay cut scheduled to begin today, CMS has instructed its contractors to hold claims for 10 days while yet another temporary sustainable growth rate formula fix is legislated.

Drawing a line in the shifting sands of the radiology marketplace, David Engert, CEO, NightHawk Radiology Holdings, has gone public with a list of the terms under which the teleradiology company would consider providing service directly or indirectly through a practice management organization [PMO] to a hospital. Coupled with a statement of

Olivia Ho Cheng, CEOOlivia Ho Cheng, CEO of Aurora Imaging Technology Inc, North Andover, Massachusetts, was recently appointed to the international advisory board for the Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics (BC CBMP), the first research laboratory focused on medical-imaging technology research and development in China. ImagingBiz spoke

More than two dozen states now have laws mandating transparency in health-care pricing, in some form or another—including everything from pilot programs to full-blown implementations.

Jeff Ronner, CFOOwing to a confluence of market forces, industry innovation, and government action, consumers in more than half of US states now have at least some ability to see procedure charges in advance. The concept is to apprise patients of their out-of-pocket costs before they schedule appointments. Armed with such information, patients

Elliott Jeter, CFA, CPA/ABVSignificant market trends, over the past few years, have affected the competitive environment between hospitals and physician-owned freestanding imaging centers. The primary drivers of these trends are the relative weaknesses of a large number of freestanding imaging centers (caused by changes in reimbursement and

When Saint Michael’s Medical Center (SMMC), Newark, New Jersey, was acquired by Catholic Health East in 2009, the organization had some catching up to do in the IT department: With no PACS or electronic medical record (EMR), its clinical-informatics capabilities were behind the times. Angelo Schittone, vice president and CIO of SMMC, explains that

Charge reconciliation—the practice of identifying procedures that have slipped through the cracks at some point in the charge process and billing for them to optimize revenue—is important for any medical group, but particularly critical for imaging. Radiology is one of the most high-volume specialty areas in terms of both codes and procedures