Imaging cuts in the Obama administration’s deficit reduction proposal would restrict patient access to care and may actually increase costs, asserts the American College of Radiology (ACR) in a statement released today.

GE Healthcare has announced that it, along with several government and organization partners, has made a major “cancer commitment” wherein it will dedicate $1 billion of its R&D budget over the next five years for cancer diagnostics and the launch of new technology and solutions.

While it remains strongly in favor of serious, properly designed proposals to eliminate the sustainable growth rate (SGR), the American College of Radiology (ACR) has issued a statement is expressing strong opposition to Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recommendations pertaining to such a move.

Health care claims information—representing more than $1 trillion in treatment and services rendered over the past 11 years—will be submitted by four major health plans and Medicare to the newly formed Health Care Cost Institute for researcher analysis of the primary drivers of costs and utilization.

Appropriateness criteria developed in 2009 by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) perform “fairly well” for certain indications, reducing the number of inappropriate imaging exams, reveals a study presented at ASNC's annual meeting in Denver, Colorado last week.

When Leo Reina, president and CEO of Reina Imaging (Chicago, Illinois), a radiography repair and manufacturing company, first entered the business 32 years ago, long-bone imaging was still largely the purview of chiropractors and orthopedists. “Chiropractors would do it looking for curvature of the spine,” he recalls, “and as prosthetics became

Exactly what portion of the hospital bottom line comes from imaging? It’s a straightforward question, but even hospital executives occasionally grope for an answer.

This article is third in a four-part series about health-care reform’s impact on radiology. To read the first article in the series, click here; to read the second, click here.