Medical billing systems are database files managed using programs that perform accounting functions. These are written to accommodate a daunting number of rules imposed by health-insurance companies and state/federal programs. They contain edit functions that screen all relevant acquired demographic and clinical information for completeness and

The proper care (and feeding) of your practice representatives is a process, not an event. Because there is so much at stake, it requires a level of communication that is unprecedented in your business. Imagine, for a moment, that you get up to go to work; when you arrive at your office, no one is happy to see you. They like you well enough, but

On June 18, 2008, a letter was sent to the CMS Coverage and Analysis Group seeking approval of CT colonography (CTC) as a generalized screening tool for colorectal cancer among asymptomatic Medicare patients 50 years of age or older. The letter itself was a calm recitation of years of evidence collected through studies and trials of CTC in various

Acquisitive firms have long been earmarked for challenges based on academic research predicting high failure rates for such companies. While valuation, timing, and culture all play critical roles in a deal, many successful companies rely heavily on acquisitions to achieve their strategic goals. Health Diagnostics, New York City, is one such company

You could say that Sandy Benson grew up at Seattle Radiologists. If you said that Seattle Radiologists grew up with Benson, you also would be correct. A former radiologic technologist with interventional-radiology experience, she joined the practice in 1983 to open an outpatient interventional lab and, 25 years later, continues to serve the

At least half of the elements of various success formulas, in business and in life, relate to one’s ability to keep a positive outlook—especially when circumstances make it most difficult to do so. It is so easy to succumb to the temptation to curl up in a fetal position in the face of adversity. Frankly, there is something to be said for the

The CMS Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) is again the center of attention for the medical community. The State Children’s Health Insurance Program bill passed in December 2007 averted the last SGR-mandated cut by funding a 0.5% update for six months. We are, however, once again at the precipice of unprecedented, and arguably untenable, physician

There is little question, and ample evidence, that merger-and-acquisition activity in the diagnostic imaging business sector has increased since the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) in 2005, and since Medicare Physician Fee Schedule changes and IDTF Standards changes in 2006 and 2007. Many in the prognostication business have been forecasting some sort