|
THE BIG PICTURE
A Time for Introspection
By Curtis Kauffman-Pickelle
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 administration—and frankly, radiologists are not likely to be seen as those most in need of bailouts. It's all rather gloomy and depressing—or is it?
Let's put today's trials and tribulations into a bit of radiologic perspective.
I recently learned about physician Takashi Nagai, one of the founding fathers of radiology who truly sacrificed himself for the greater good of humanity and the profession. Nagai was one of the people who, against all odds, helped create this fascinating profession of ours. His is a lesson worth thinking about when we bemoan the fact that the profession has disappointed us and has not proven to be inspiring or fulfilling. His story will awaken even the most apathetic among our colleagues.
[Click here for more] | [Return to TOC]
|
|
|
|
Strategies for Accommodating Self-pay Patients
By Cat Vasko
 
As 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 in Atlanta, Georgia. Based on a dataset of around 50 geographically disparate sites, Roat, vice president of radiology services for MMP, has seen an 11% increase in uninsured patients from 2008 to 2009 in the hospital environment; in the imaging center environment, that increase was a more measured (but still alarming) 5%.
Practices also might face difficulties in dealing with insured patients. As deductibles rise and copayments represent an increasingly high percentage of the overall cost of a procedure, Roat cautions that there's more out-of-pocket payment, even among the insured.
"We need to be a lot more flexible and creative in how we work with our patients to allow them to pay for the services that we render."
—Randal Roat, CHBME, Vice President, Radiology Services,
Medical Management Professionals, Atlanta, Georgia
[Click here for more] | [Return to TOC]
|
|
CT Radiation Dose on the Table
by George Wiley
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 all looking for ways to minimize the radiation delivered during one or a series of CT exams.
"You can't pick up a journal, whether for radiology or not, without an article about the radiation dose of CT," according to E. Stephen Amis Jr, MD, FACR. "It's the topic du jour." Amis knows the landscape. He is the former chair of an ACR® Blue Ribbon Panel on Radiation Dose in Medicine and the current cochair of the Task Force on Adult Radiation Protection sponsored by the ACR and the RSNA. He also deals with CT radiation exposure on the day-to-day level.
[Click here for more] | [Return to TOC]
|
|
Key Metrics for 2010:
A Conversation With Marcia Flaherty, CEO, Riverside Radiology
By Cat Vasko
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 Radiology and Interventional Associates Inc, Columbus, Ohio, for an inside look at the 40-site practice's robust data mining and analytics.
ImagingBiz: How has Riverside used practice metrics to stay competitive in the past? What are some key metrics analyzed in 2009?
Flaherty: We internally develop metrics, benchmarks, and goals for each major business function, including IT, finance, billing, and clinical services and operations. Each year, these goals and benchmarks are reviewed and used to develop long-term and annual plans. On the clinical side, we have a peer-review process that spans all practice sites to review quality. We also review staffing and procedures by hour to determine physician resource allocation—this is further defined by subspecialty area, in some instances.
"We have developed standardized clinical guidelines and protocols across our sites of service. This is probably the area where we're most sophisticated."
—Marcia Flaherty, CEO
Riverside Radiology and Interventional Associates Inc, Riverside, Ohio
We measure turnaround time in about every fashion you can imagine; we have a standard that we want to make sure we hit at each of our locations, and we also want to make sure that we've staffed appropriately. We've grown, and we never seem to have a so-called typical year.
[Click here for more] | [Return to TOC]
|
|
Preparing for Potential Reform:
The Hospital View
By Rich Smith
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 of their organizations. Gerard A. Durney, senior vice president of surgical and ancillary services for the three-hospital Bon Secours Charity Health System in Suffern, New York, offers a tip of the hat to any enterprise that's even able to get its collective mind around the impending changes, let alone map out a new course in response.
For starters, no one outside Congress has yet seen the finalized provisions of the reform legislation (the process of reconciling the Senate and House versions is taking place behind closed doors). "There are some critically important considerations we don't yet know," Durney says. "How many more people will be insured? To what degree will they be insured? What kind of copayments are they going to be responsible for—in other words, how much skin are they going to have in the game? Without knowing these details, strategic planning is very difficult."
[Click here for more] | [Return to TOC]
|
|
The Quest for Quality in Radiology
By Kris Kyes
  
With Quality Counts as its theme for 2009, the RSNA's 95th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, obviously emphasized multiple aspects of quality assurance, control, and improvement. On December 1, several multispeaker sessions had an even stronger focus on the practical steps that radiology providers can (and should) take to promote high quality in their operations and in their staff performance. Three of the presenters were particularly generous in sharing their experience and insight.
Jonathan B. Kruskal, MD, PhD, is chair of the department of radiology and director of quality assurance at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, and is a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School. He presented "Anatomy and Pathophysiology of Errors in Radiology Practice," stressing that the quality-improvement field is beset by myth in some areas. For example, it is often believed that errors are random occurrences, but they are actually attributable to factors that can be detected and corrected. Likewise, he says, the notion that properly trained professionals rarely commit errors is false.
James R. Duncan, MD, PhD, associate professor of radiology in the division of interventional radiology, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri, noted the importance of analyzing and then preventing these professional errors in "Assessing Physician Performance." This process is vital not only to improving patient care but to enhancing public perception of the value of imaging services. He says that members of the public are "spending an incredible amount of money on health care, and their impression is that they're not getting their money's worth."
[Click here for more] | [Return to TOC]
|
|
Member of the following organizations:
|
INFORMATION RESOURCES
|
|
How Preauthorization Affects Utilization: Study
A study in the January issue of Journal of the American College of Radiology: JACR analyzes how one radiology benefit management (RBM) company's preauthorization program affected the utilization of advanced diagnostic imaging. The authors look at the operational aspects of an RBM call center and examine how preauthorization slowed growth in the utilization of MRI, CT, and PET in one payor's large markets.
[Read More]
Health Care Job Market Continues to Grow
Though December marked the 24th month without statistically significant job growth in the United States, health care has added 630,600 new jobs over the past two years, Modern Healthcare reports. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, health care kept pace with its average 2009 rate of growth in December, adding 21,500 jobs. Hospitals posted their second-slowest month of job growth in 2009, while physicians' offices posted their highest net growth since 2008.
[Read More]
Hybrid Imaging: State of the Technology
An article in the January issue of RSNA News reports on the results of an international panel convened at RSNA 2009 to discuss hybrid imaging. Thirty-five leaders from radiology and nuclear-medicine societies worldwide looked at training requirements and credentialing for such hybrid modalities as PET/CT, SPECT/CT, MRI/PET, ultrasound/CT, and ultrasound/MRI. "We must commit to work together . . . to develop common procedural guidelines," one panel participant says.
[Read More]
SBI and ACR Recommend Breast-cancer Screening From Age 40
According to new recommendations issued by the Society of Breast Imaging and the ACR®, breast-cancer screening should begin at age 40 for most women, and should begin earlier for high-risk patients. The new recommendations are broken down by imaging technique—including mammography, MRI, and ultrasound—and by risk factor, and can be read in full in the January issue of Journal of the American College of Radiology: JACR.
[Read More]
|
|
COMING EVENTS
|
|
FEBRUARY
Leadership Strategies for Radiology: Taking Your Practice to the Next Level
Sponsored by the ACR Executive Leadership Series
February 7
Vail Marriott Mountain Resort & Spa, Vail, Colorado
This intensive one-day symposium will present a comprehensive series of lectures focused on developing attendees' leadership skills and optimizing the structure and function of their practices.
[Register]
MARCH
Building Better Radiology Marketing Programs
Sponsored by the RBMA
March 8–9
Westin San Diego, San Diego, California
This comprehensive program featuring peer-to-peer learning intends to equip participants to develop extreme marketing programs that work. The 2010 RBMA Quest Awards will be presented.
[Register]
SIR Annual Scientific Meeting
Sponsored by the Society of Interventional Radiology
March 13–18
Tampa Marriott Waterside, Tampa, Florida
SIR's annual scientific meeting will focus on improving the science, quality, and patient-care aspects of the field of interventional radiology. Special features include a one-day program designed for hospital administrators and two dedicated days of programming for clinical associates, including nurse practitioners and radiology assistants.
[Register]
Imaging 100
Sponsored by Lincoln Health care Events
March 20–23
Chateau Elan Golf Resort and Winery, Braselton, Georgia
Highlights of this 2010 executive program include programs on controlling the influence of radiology benefit management companies, attracting private equity to your OIC, building successful hospital/imaging center partnerships, and fostering customer loyalty.
[Register]
|
Subscribe now to radiology's
next-generation
economics journal
Coming in the February/March Issue
[Click here]
|
CORPORATE OFFICE
|
|
PRESIDENT/CEO
Curtis Kauffman-Pickelle
VP, PUBLISHING
Cheryl Proval
VP, CLIENT SERVICES
Steve Smith
|
|
