Emanuel Kanal, MD, founded the American Board of MR Safety to help develop safety standards for MR practices and to certify practitioners.

A physician at the Atlanta-based firm purportedly spent as few as 30 seconds reviewing reports prepared by overseas readers who weren’t permitted to practice medicine nor bill government healthcare programs. 

‘I have all kinds of nightmare scenarios playing out in my head, like how am I going to pay my bills?’

With the recent adjustment, the conversion factor is now 1.77% lower than it was in 2023, at $33.2875, consulting firm Healthcare Administrative Partners notes. 

The figure places radiology 12th on a list of 39 specialties ranked in terms of total amount paid to physicians between 2013 and 2022.

Medicaid’s $50 billion in improper payments was the highest total for a single program—but it was also the most improved government program, cutting about $30 billion from its 2022 improper payments total. 

Only orthopedic surgeons and neurologists/psychiatrists received more industry payments from 2013 to 2022 than cardiologists. Also, the two prescription medications associated with the most physician payments were a blood thinner and an anticoagulant. 

If the proposal—of which no financial details were made public—goes through, Steward doctors in nine states would be managed by Optum.