According to a 2004 study by the American College of Healthcare Executives, only 21% of 722 hospitals routinely engaged in leadership-succession planning, compared with two out of three for-profit companies in other industries. Will Powley, senior consulting manager for GE Healthcare’s Performance Solutions group, Waukesha, Wisconsin, says that

Radiology has a storage problem, to put it lightly: Even as the data associated with a single cross-sectional imaging study increase dramatically, HIPAA requirements to ensure patient privacy remain as stringent as ever. At last year’s RSNA meeting, a new solution appeared on the horizon in the form of cloud storage—a concept that has gained

Integration has been a buzzword in the radiology community for some time, and the team at Valhalla, New York-based Westchester Medical Center (WMC) knows why. “We used to have PACS, RIS, and voice recognition all working separately from one another,” Mike Seiler, director of radiology IT at WMC, explains. “Today, they’re all tightly integrated. We

The familiar, contentious debate surrounding Medicare’s sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula came to a temporary close on June 24, when the House of Representatives, by passing HR 3962, finally agreed to a Senate plan to put off a 21.3% decrease in payment rates. The payment fix is only effective through November 30, however, ensuring yet another

As the technology used for radiologic studies matures, providers and referrers are increasingly focused on providing patients with a friendlier imaging environment—with good reason, according to Tariq Gill, MD. “We need to make a conscious effort to make things nonthreatening,” he says. “In our community, we have three main hospitals, and each one

Plenty remains unknowable about the incipient impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA), but the act does stand to affect imaging providers, specifically through its compliance, fraud, and payment provisions, many of which have already taken effect or will take effect in the near future.

At Shields Health Care Group (SHCG), an outpatient high-end imaging provider headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts, staying ahead of the technology curve has been a clearly defined business initiative from the beginning. It is paying off handsomely. According to the company, one in every three MRI patients in the state is imaged at an SHCG center.

CMS is proposing a new round of cuts to the imaging technical component by extending the multi-procedural payment reduction (MPPR) across all CT, MRI, and ultrasound studies performed on the same patient in the same day in its proposed rule for the 2011 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. As mandated by Congress, the discount increased from 25% to 50%