What To Do About Patient No-Shows Patient no-shows have long plagued the healthcare industry, and radiology is no exception. But there are tactics you can implement to reduce the no-show rate or recoup lost revenue.
Be Aggressive to Boost Your Imaging Referrals If you’ve seen fewer and fewer physicians referring patients to your center for imaging services over the past five years, you’re not alone. The decline is a nationwide trend, and many industry consultants believe that to fortify your bottom line, you must go on the offensive.
What Bundled Payments Could Mean for Radiology The way you receive reimbursement for your services could soon transform. There are two problems, however: no one is sure to what degree it will change, and radiologists haven’t had a voice in the conversation.
Massachusetts' experience with healthcarereform may be predictive of the effects of national healthcarereform. Data on employment in the healthcare industry were examined to determine the impact of the Massachusetts reform on the state's healthcare workforce.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has grand ambitions: to provide insurance coverage to more than 30 million currently uninsured Americans, to slow increases in healthcare costs, to reorganize the healthcare delivery system, and to improve the quality of care provided to all. Where does the oral health community fit in this initiative? Should dentists "scope up" to become a more active part of the primary care workforce? Or should dentists "scope down" and delegate parts of the traditional dental tool kit to midlevel practitioners? Our nation's public health largely depends on whether we can create a more integrated and public health-oriented delivery system. The oral health, physical health, and public health communities should address this challenge together.
Improving value in healthcare is of paramount importance, and doing so will require focus on both the costs and benefits of care. Palliative care addresses symptoms of disease regardless of prognosis, helps patients clarify their goals of care, and is key in improving value in the healthcare system.
There are chemicals (neurotransmitters and otherwise) central to the physiological process of pain, and I envision an imaging modality that could depict where in the body these chemicals are active. More »
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will not apply in 2012 the professional component Multiple Procedure Payment Reduction (MPPR) for imaging services performed by separate physicians in the same group practice, the American College of Radiology announced Sunday. This decision will affect... More »
Over the past 20 years, not only has clinical instruction during radiology residency changed, but so has the practice life that comes after it. Even as a growing number of medical students select radiology as a specialty, practice-setting preferences have shifted for your younger colleagues. They... More »
If you don’t want radiology to become a commodity, just connect. That’s the advice Larry Muroff, MD, CEO and President of Imaging Consultants, Tampa, delivered at RSNA 2011. More »
CHICAGO — To be successful amid declining reimbursement and healthcare reform, radiology residents — and perhaps all practicing radiologists — must do more than perfect their study interpretation skills. Pressures from the industry will require them to do what Bibb Allen, MD, FACR, vice chair of the... More »
CHICAGO — Worried your private radiology practice will get swallowed up by a hospital? Perhaps there’s little need to fret. The hospital employment trend sweeping your primary care colleagues hasn’t — and likely won’t — hit radiology. That’s according to Shay Pratt, managing director with the... More »
CHICAGO — Carol Lee, MD, a Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center radiologist, presented a balanced menu of evidence on breast-cancer screening at RSNA 2011 on Monday. She offered up a slew of studies that, collectively, have found mammography to cut breast cancer mortality around 25 percent. She... More »
The more advanced and more complicated the disease process, the more likely the patient will end up with surgery and/or amputation, increasing the cost of initial care and the additional intervention.
If those of us who are in positions to evaluate and review hiring policies do not take a significant role in ensuring a level playing field then we are truly to blame.
Tax Schemes Every Physician Should Avoid Ike Devji, JD, January 31, 2012 The next 60 days marks the final push to sell physicians across the United States tax plans of both good and questionable value.
Prevent Physician Distraction When Using mHealth Technology Aubrey Westgate, January 25, 2012 As more and more physicians use handheld mobile technology in their day-to-day work, some critics are raising concerns about “distracted doctoring.”
Can That Applicant Do the Job at Your Medical Practice? Karen Zupko, January 25, 2012 If like many communities, yours has significant numbers of non-English speaking people with whom neither you nor your staff are able to converse, your practice is at a serious disadvantage.
Patient no-shows have long plagued the healthcare industry, and radiology is no exception. But there are tactics you can implement to reduce the no-show rate or recoup lost revenue.
