Medicare providers and suppliers nationwide have been preparing for increased Medicare audit activity in anticipation of the nationwide rollout of the permanent Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) Program. CMS suspended implementation of the permanent RAC program in late 2008, but the stay was lifted in February 2009. The RAC project is back on track,

When Vanderbilt Imaging Services LLC, the freestanding outpatient radiology practice associated with Vanderbilt Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn, opened its doors in 1999, the center decided to implement an alternative to the traditional RIS configuration: a hosted RIS. The benefits of a vendor-hosted RIS solution include increased reliability,

Say that Amazon.com operated using a thick-client model (it doesn’t, but pretend it does for argument's sake). Imagine, then, the nightmare that the head of the company’s operations would face if tasked with making sure that every customer could visit, navigate, and shop on the site successfully following even a minor revision or upgrade.

A new study1 finding that radiology order-entry (ROE) and decision-support (DS) tools act to curtail utilization rates for advanced imaging is being celebrated as proof that a White House proposal to deploy radiology benefit managers (RBMs) as Medicare gatekeepers is unnecessary and ill conceived.

Is outpatient imaging on the hospital campus still strategically relevant for hospitals and health systems? If so, what will it take to capture this volume in an increasingly competitive market? These are the two primary questions facing hospitals and health systems as they contemplate their campus-based outpatient imaging strategies.

Because there are not enough radiologists available to meet demand, practices must learn to make the most of radiologists’ available time, according to a paper presented in Chicago at RSNA 2008: Personal Learning in the Global Community. On December 3, Tracking Physician Productivity: Is It Necessary and How Should It Be Done? was presented by Fred

I recently attended a very interesting and intellectually stimulating conference for top leaders in the field of outpatient imaging services. The Imaging 100 conference was held in Carlsbad, Calif, where imaging executives representing various provider segments assembled to discuss innovative solutions to hot marketplace issues. Most attendees were

Heroes in Proving the Value of Imaging is an occasional series about radiology professionals whose work demonstrates the value of the specialty through research, governmental affairs, humanitarian efforts, and more. In Part 2, ImagingBiz showcases the work of G. Scott Gazelle, MD, MPH, PhD, director of the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA)