Some proponents of national health care reform expect to pop the champagne corks any day now in celebration of getting a bill through Congress. Meanwhile, some administrators of hospitals and imaging departments expect to pop the lids off aspirin bottles so that they can begin nursing the headaches caused by undertaking the strategic repositioning

At RSNA 2009, analysis of key metrics was emphasized as a means for radiology practices to improve operations, augment quality, and reduce costs. In 2010’s health care environment of ever-declining reimbursement and renewed focus on outcomes, what are the key metrics for practices to use? ImagingBiz.com spoke with Marcia Flaherty, CEO of Riverside

Long a point of concern in Europe, radiation dose has emerged as a key point of consideration for pediatric radiologists in the United States, particularly with the development of multidetector CT. Recent headlines, however, have broadened the issue. Patients, referrers, hospital and radiology-department administrators, and CT equipment vendors are

Randal Roat Jana LandrethAs the ranks of the uninsured continue to grow, it is increasingly important for radiology practices to implement strategies for dealing with self-pay patients, according to Randal Roat, CHBME, and Jana Landreth, CPA, MBA, of Medical Management Professionals (MMP), a physician billing and practice-management company based

The question that I am most often asked is why I remain so confident and bullish about radiology’s future, given all of the bad news that continues to drain our collective will. Granted, medical imaging is under siege from the regulators, is in the crosshairs of the health reformers, and is not particularly embraced these days by hospital

The future is here—it just hasn’t made it to radiology yet. A restless pioneer spirit continues to drive radiology into the future, even if that future is lagging well behind advances achieved by Internet commerce companies. “This is not novel; this is how IT works in every other vertical setting except medicine,” Paul Chang, MD, FSIIM, explains.

When Jane Wheatley, CEO of Taylor Regional Hospital, Campbellsville, Kentucky, needed to make a decision regarding her facility’s handling of radiology services, she had two imperatives in mind: cost and quality. After the hospital’s radiology group disbanded in the early 2000s, the 90-bed acute care center contracted with an outside radiology

Health care futurist and consultant Jeff Bauer, PhD, coauthor of the book Paradox and Imperatives in Health Care: How Efficiency, Effectiveness, and E-Transformation Can Conquer Waste and Optimize Quality (Productivity Press, 2007), has raised eyebrows by suggesting that meaningful health care reform faces tough odds on Capitol Hill. He spoke with