The Wall Street Journal took a break from writing about all that is wrong with the economics of health care delivery to highlight something that is right — the efforts of radiologists to reduce duplicate scans through image sharing and make it easier for patients to get second opinions.

The efforts of organizations like the Medical Imaging Technology Alliance (MITA) to end the medical device tax that went into effect this year drew the sharp rebuke of the New York Times' editorial board.

As Massachusetts joins the ranks of states weighing legislation requiring mammography patients to be informed if they have dense breast tissue, the state also is streamlining the process by requiring imaging facilities—not physicians—to communicate information about breast density to patients at the completion of a mammogram.

Begging the question of where alignment ends and payola begins, Intermountain Healthcare, Salt Lake City, Utah, has agreed to pay the government $25.5 million to settle charges that it paid referral-based bonuses to physicians, as well as other forms of compensation illegal under the Stark laws.

The attorney general of Kansas has reached an agreement with Prime Healthcare Services Inc. to allow it to acquire two Catholic charity hospitals — the 400-bed Providence Medical Center in Kansas City, and the 80-bed St. John Hospital in Leavenworth.

The proposed law would exempt doctors who are solo practitioners, are near retirement age or don’t conduct traditional office visits. The last exception would presumably apply to radiologists.

For Medicare providers, the 2 percent across-the-board cut to reimbursement is now in effect. It’s implementation on April Fools Day may seem apt as these cuts were supposed to have been so severe and harmful that no one in their right mind would let them go into effect

Seeking to close the in-office ancillary services exception to the law preventing physician self referral, the Association for Quality Imaging has scheduled a Washington, D.C., advocacy day on May 8