Will Congress replace the sustainable growth rate (SGR) factor with an alternative spending target? Or will it scrap the whole system, including the resource-based relative-value scale (RBRVS) on which the Physician Fee Schedule is based?

The past few weeks have witnessed some rather remarkable national press reports about this marvelous profession that is the broad field of diagnostic imaging, and in each round of news coverage we have viewed both the opportunities and threats inherent in the practice of radiology in the public realm…well out of the shelter of the reading room.

In announcing that all network imaging centers must be accredited by March of next year, UnitedHealthcare, Minnetonka, Minn, has added accelerated the trend toward imaging center accreditation and technical privileging requirements, The United accreditation program applies to all participating freestanding imaging centers and physician offices and

The best path to profitability in a global economy is not technology but effective management of an organization’s human resources, according to Laurie Bassi and Daniel McMurrer, authors of “Maximizing Your Return on People” in the March issue of the Harvard Business Review. The authors contend that investments in human capital management (HCM) can

In an article in the March issue of Imaging Economics, Berger acknowledges that his company RadNet strategically acquired 69 imaging centers six months after the act passed into law—for a grand tally of 129 centers regionally clustered throughout the United States—at a time when most imaging center operators were lobbying for the act’s repeal.

While Congress hacks away at imaging reimbursement, radiology benefits management companies are chipping away at volume, and outpatient imaging is likely to feel the brunt of these efforts. An article in Managed Care Week reports Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina will begin requiring prior approval for for non-emergency CT, MRI, magnetic

We have had many readers respond to last month’s editorial on the failure of our elected officials to grasp the malfeasance of the imaging cuts contained in the Deficit Reduction Act and to institute a moratorium. Here, we publish the comments of Kirk Lawson, executive director, River Radiology and Mark Newton, CFO, Hudson Valley Radiologists, who

I have visited some 40 radiology practices or imaging center organizations in the past six months, and a recurring theme in the questions that I am asked regarding business strategy relates to the somewhat elusive notion of leadership in this profession of ours. That is, leadership within these organizations themselves at the imaging center level,