Expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has led to some improvements in cardiovascular care for underserved racial and ethnic patient populations—but there is still plenty of room for improvement.

The college recently hired the Moran Company to analyze future payment trends, following the feds’ decision to increase reimbursement for care-related Evaluation and Management services. 

The Plantation, Florida, corporation has also temporarily shuttered 17 of its freestanding imaging centers, while also working out new payment schedules with landlords and vendors. 

The most commonly missed condition seems to be spinal abscess, an infection that can cause paraplegia yet was fumbled in more than 62% of cases.

The tally represents a nearly 2% uptick from the $419,000 rads received in the previous salary survey, Medscape reported. 

The figure is nearly 2% higher compared to last year's report from Medscape, but some experts believe the recent global pandemic may change the trend.

This continues a steady rise in pay for the specialty—the same report recorded cardiology’s average salary as $430,000 in 2019, $423,000 in 2018 and $410,000 in 2017.

“RP One,” as the effort is called, is doling out grants to team members who are “experiencing significant financial hardship because of the COVID crisis.”