Increased Use of CCTA Cost Effective for Diagnosing Coronary Artery Disease

Increased Use of CCTA Cost Effective for Diagnosing Coronary Artery Disease

Radiologic screening opportunities are on the increase in the field of cardiology. A new retrospective study examined the results in the United Kingdom of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)’s 2016 recommendation that coronary CT angiography (CCTA) be used as the first-line test for potential angina. Research, led by Jonathan Weir-McCall, PhD…

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False-Positives Found To Be Higher If ECG Is Done Too Soon After Cardiac Arrest

False-Positives Found To Be Higher If ECG Is Done Too Soon After Cardiac Arrest

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) are one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Emergency medical services treat an estimated 30 to 97.1 per 100,000 individuals every year. A critical component of survival is the ECG. Recently, a multinational PEACE European study found that the earlier the electrocardiography (ECG) acquisition after return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC)…

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UnitedHealthcare is Steering Patients Away from Hospitals to Cheaper Care

magnifying glass over UnitedHealthcare logo

UnitedHealthcare has a new policy. It is the Site-of-Service Medical Necessity Review Policy. This new policy essentially shifts the burden of proving that a hospital site is necessary for the outpatient procedure a patient is having performed onto the patient and his or her physician/surgeon. Consequently, this new Site-of-Service Medical Necessity Review Policy just adds…

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The Impact of Clinical Decision Support on Utilization of Radiology

Clinical decision support (CDS) software considers the patient's symptoms to determine which imaging tests to run; thus

As of Jan 1, 2018, the United States healthcare reform requires that physicians implement clinical decision support (CDS) software. This was done to ensure the appropriate use criteria (AUC) are being followed when ordering non-emergency, outpatient imaging tests. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) require that physicians use CDS software that has been…

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