Grassroots lobbying can at times seem more frustrating than helpful. Tremendous effort is invested in contacting legislators via e-mail, fax, phone, and in-person visits and often nothing seems to happen. But when it works, it can create successes that millions of dollars for professional lobbying could not match.

There is a wonderful scene in the book Sho-Gun in which a Portuguese pilot helps save the life of an English pilot when both are in a treacherous part of the world, far from the sea-based battleground where their respective countries battle for turf supremacy. Since the two find themselves facing a common foe in the Japanese, the Portuguese “Anjin”

I was impressed by the crowd. Not just the fact that there were over 100 imaging center executives, radiologists and administrators gathered, but with the fact that they all came to the RCG Healthcare symposium in Las Vegas at the end of March to get serious about their future. There was not a hand wringer in the group and those that I talked to

Is anti-self referral legislation too controversial for 2006? Representatives of the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the National Coalition for Quality Diagnostic Imaging Services (NCQDIS) have set their lobbying priorities for this year and at the top of the agenda is reversing the cuts in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) and

The diagnostic imaging industry’s lobbying priority for 2006 is clear, say representative of industry associations and imaging center owners: Stop the Medicare reimbursement cuts for imaging procedures included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 from going into effect. But how? Now there’s the rub.

As the dust begins to settle on the legislative action that has imaging center owners in various states of confusion, angst, and anger, it is clear that no one saw this particular train wreck coming. Questions remain at virtually every level of influence within the industry about who, why, what went wrong and what to do about these devastating

WASHINGTON, DC — When the House narrowly approved the Senate version of the 2006 Federal budget on February 1, radiologists, radiation oncologists, and other physicians avoided the across-the-board 4.4% cut to Medicare fee schedules mandated by the sustainable growth rate formula built into the program. However, to help make up the $7.3 billion

WASHINGTON, DC — Taking the imaging world by complete surprise, the Senate voted with the House on Wednesday, December 21, to equalize technical component reimbursement rates paid under the Physician Fee Schedule with those paid for under the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System beginning in 2007, dealing the freestanding imaging center