Philips Healthcare has made an additional donation of nearly $9,000 to help the ASRT Foundation support members who volunteer in under-served communities and provide quality medical imaging and radiation therapy services for populations in need

Got an idea for how to accomplish the enormous job of speeding the nation-wide adoption of electronic health records that actually can share data (interoperability) without spending any extra money? Health and Human Services (HHS) is all ears

Radiologist efficiency has increased by leaps and bounds in the digital era, but reimbursement trends have kept steady the pressure to improve productivity further. A handful of emerging tools for the practice potentially could make already-productive physicians even more efficient, according to Bill Pickart, CEO of Integrated Medical Partners (IMP); Pickart says, however, that these tools will represent a cultural shift that will need to be managed skillfully for maximum effectiveness.

Influenced by emerging technology and regulatory changes, the role of the radiology-group CIO has undergone a dramatic shift in recent years: Wayne Davidson, CIO of Quantum Imaging & Therapeutic Associates, Inc (Lewisberry, Pennsylvania), a 40-radiologist practice, says, “In recent years, the focus has really become efficiency because of background factors like declining reimbursement. That drives the business to try to do more with less, and that goal is laid on the shoulders of the IT department.

Quantum Imaging & Therapeutic Associates, Inc, a 40-radiologist practice in Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, faced a problem common to radiology groups in the post-DRA era: improving efficiency without decreasing the quality of its interpretations. Elizabeth Bergey, MD, CEO of the group, says, “Radiologist efficiency and efficacy are based, somewhat, on internal factors. Everybody has his or her own personal work ethic, and in any population, there will be some variation.

The topic of efficiency in radiology is both politically and emotionally charged. Improvements in radiologists’ productivity are increasingly critical to financial viability, but cannot be achieved at the expense of clinical quality, especially at a time when quality will be increasingly closely linked to reimbursement. Further, any radiology group that begins tracking (or even providing incentives for) efficiency risks an uphill battle, in terms of changing the culture of its business.

Although Medicare spending is shielded from the largest across-the-board mandated cuts known as the the sequester, the cuts will still total $11.1 billion for fiscal 2013

The founders of the Atlanta-based medical billing and practice management company credit MMP’s core value of partnership with clients as the underpinning for the company’s two decades of growth