The ever changing landscape of outpatient diagnostic imaging is compelling operators to have a keen understanding of market conditions in order to appropriately assess the potential return on investment on capital investments to upgrade or replace major imaging equipment. 

What do we really know? As former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once said: “We know there are known knowns; there are things we know we know.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, there is a significant segment of high risk individuals with pre-existing medical conditions currently enrolled in a federal health insurance program that is slated to close on March 31, 2014. This federal program was created shortly after the 2010 health law was passed to offer assistance to those people who couldn’t get coverage from commercial insurers because of their pre-existing medical conditions. There was $5 billion in funding set aside to cover this group’s medical claims through December 31, 2013. 

According to an article published in NewsDay, Federal agents raided the corporate headquarters of Zwanger-Pesiri Radiology in Lindenhurst on Tuesday, March 11, seizing the records of the business that operates 12 medical offices on Long Island, NY. 

Healthcare providers are rolling up their sleeves even further and getting down to the business of healthcare. With the final CMS reimbursement decisions made last month and open enrollment in the health insurance exchanges (HIEs) and Medicaid closing next month, there are new data impacting radiology practices. For sure, lower contracted rates from payors and lower reimbursement are on the way—for an extremely large patient population. Radiology departments and practices need to revisit the efficiency of their operations.

As anyone who has been around medical imaging for any amount of time can tell you, the latest headwind is the same as it’s seemingly always been: reimbursement cuts.