Here we go again! Just when the DRA impact is beginning to be felt as the A/R collections period from Q4 06 morphs into the reality of weaker cash receipts in Q2 07, the American College of Radiology (ACR) Regulatory Update that I attended at the recent Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA) meeting in St Louis revealed the insipient

Emerging from the two addresses delivered by noted health informaticist Brent James, MD, at the last meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), attendees could not help but ask the above question. If ever there was a case for managing the utilization of care, that time is now.

An amended complaint filed by the Illinois Attorney General in the per-click leasing complaint, initially filed by a whistleblower last year, parsed out a few more legal entities that operated the 19 named imaging centers, but failed to name any of the referring physicians in the complaint.

I recently attended an outpatient imaging center conference where, not surprisingly, surviving the DRA, dominated the discussion. It also was no surprise that increasing volume was the prevailing recommendation for solving the issue. Economically, it makes sense. When the price goes down, a company must attract more customers and serve them more

Two major imaging center organizations released their annual 10-K reports last month, providing the first official projections of the impact of the DRA on corporate imaging center companies. Not surprisingly, the DRA figured prominently in the risk factors section for both MQ Associates, Alpharetta, Ga, which owns MedQuest, and Alliance Imaging,

This year already has proven to be a busy one for legislative activity in radiology. The heightened level of interest has to do with several key factors. With the presidential election approaching in 2008, health care and its funding will continue to be a hot topic for debate; and as medical imaging costs and utilization continue to skyrocket,

Will Congress replace the sustainable growth rate (SGR) factor with an alternative spending target? Or will it scrap the whole system, including the resource-based relative-value scale (RBRVS) on which the Physician Fee Schedule is based?

The past few weeks have witnessed some rather remarkable national press reports about this marvelous profession that is the broad field of diagnostic imaging, and in each round of news coverage we have viewed both the opportunities and threats inherent in the practice of radiology in the public realm…well out of the shelter of the reading room.