Business
How Small and Mid-Sized Radiology Practices Succeed Despite Consolidation
Radiology is in crisis. Rapidly increasing premiums for employees, changing demands for independent practices, and the consumerization of healthcare push more independent radiologists to consider consolidation. Consolidation is the crisis that continues to impact the healthcare industry, and multiple private equity firms, including Coastal Radiology Associates, have poured countless dollars into encouraging consolidation. On its…
Read MoreHospitals Face $252.6B in Cuts for Medicare and Medicaid Payments
Prudent radiology professionals working in hospitals know how important it is to stay on top of developments in their field so they can deliver the best service to patients. This includes keeping current on technological advances and new protocols for diagnosing and assessing patients, as well as ongoing legislative and regulatory changes. If you’re like…
Read MoreUnitedHealthcare is Steering Patients Away from Hospitals to Cheaper Care
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…
Read MoreCMS Adds Barriers to Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP Disbursements
No more “pay and chase.” On November 4, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin enforcing a recently issued final rule that empowers CMS to revoke or deny enrollment in provider programs for Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP based on questionable business associations. There are no databases of questionable businesses. CMS will…
Read MoreMedical Excellence Doesn’t Mean You Never Have to Say “I’m Sorry”
Every radiologist worries about missing a diagnosis or giving a false-positive reading, but diagnostic errors are not a rare event in radiology. The multi-facility RADPEER study found peer disagreement in 0.8 percent of “non-difficult” cases and in 2.9 percent of “difficult” cases. One study has found that up to 54 percent of results of mammography are…
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