While declining reimbursement in the U.S. has hit the shared MRIservice business hardest, shared service firms focusing on lowercost modalities are also susceptible to procedure price pressure.Consolidation may hit these industries as service economics
A recent court decision has given the nuclear medicine communitya forum in which to challenge the Nuclear Regulatory Commission'scontroversial license fees for handling radioisotopes. Nuclearmedicine practitioners charge that NRC fees have skyrocketed
Imaging service companies have a hard row to hoe staying aliveand profitable in a rapidly changing U.S. health care deliverysystem. But those center and mobile providers that are smart andquick enough to outlast the shakeout and build connections tothe
Acuson and its founder/CEO Samuel H. Maslak are hitting the roadthis month to tout technology in a manner reminiscent of the ultrasoundvendor's initial launch of its high-end 128 scanner a decade ago.Similarities between 1983 and 1993 abound, not only in
A year after the General Accounting Office lambasted MRI centersfor overcharging Medicare for imaging scans, a new study commissionedby the Quality Imaging Association contradicts the GAO findings. In its 1992 report, the GAO charged that centers were
You know a business situation is dim when the bright side is thata good chunk of your competition may close shop before you do.That about sums up the state of the outpatient imaging servicesmarket. And wither goes imaging services, so go the
The General Accounting Office released a study last month disclosingthat Florida physicians with imaging center investment interestsordered far more medical imaging tests than doctors who did notself-refer. The GAO's findings have already provided
Demand for new MRI systems continues in the private-practice/outpatient-centermarket, although buyers faced with declining reimbursement arepressing for lower equipment prices. Otsuka Electronics will shipseven of its OE 1.5 SI MRI systems this spring,
Opponents of a form of imaging center networking known as scanbrokering are waging a battle against the practice in California.A bill that would ban scan brokering is undergoing hearings inthe state Legislature. Assembly bill 1898 was sponsored by the
Diagnostic Health has switched tracks in its imaging-center acquisitiondrive but is still rolling towards the goal of building a 30-centerchain over the next two to three years. With stock markets spookedby the uncertainty of impending health-care
Play the flip side of the health-care, cost-containment bluesand you will hear some well-placed companies singing market rhapsodies.Wall Street whistled to the tune of $6 million in support of niche-MRIdeveloper Magna-Lab last month, despite the
Imaging center chains must control what they pay for center acquisitionsif they hope to compete in a managed-care-driven U.S. health-caresystem. Many center partnerships continue to request prices thatare too high, considering how cost-driven the imaging
In what could be a harbinger of the future of health-care reform,a Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan in New York has begun requiringprecertification for MRI scans. Precertification is not new to managed care plans such as healthmaintenance organizations. But
The MR Cooperative hopes strength in numbers will help its membersweather tough times in store for the imaging center industry.The center association is negotiating group discounts on everythingfrom contrast agents to equipment upgrades by grouping its
Siemens initiated a restructuring of its U.S. medical operationslast week that will eventually centralize all corporate unitsunder Siemens Medical Systems in Iselin, NJ. The German vendorpreviously had U.S.-based medical businesses with worldwide
Funds for imaging center acquisitions have tightened as investorspull back and scope out the potentially radical changes in U.S.health-care delivery due for disclosure by the Clinton administrationin May. With imaging center operating profits under
Bristol-Myers Squibb hopes the secret to unlocking the potentiallyhuge ultrasound contrast market lies in a derivative of a materialas rare as the common household plant. This month the companyrevealed the details of its licensing and manufacturing
Manufacturers and users of low-field MRI scanners are breathinga little easier in California. Members of a physicians councilcharged with reforming the state's workers' compensation insurancesystem have moved a step closer to shelving a controversial
Combine the world's largest fleet of mobile MRI vans with a growingfixed-site imaging center business, stir in more than a pinchof U.S. health-care restructuring and leaven with cheap debt.Could this be a blue-ribbon recipe for approaching
Manufacturers and users of low-field MRI scanners will probablydodge a bullet this month that could have been fatal for low-fieldreimbursement in California's workers' compensation system. Membersof a medical council participating in reform of the system
Proponents of health-care reform wasted little time resurrectingfederal legislation that would grant antitrust waivers to hospitalsplanning medical equipment-sharing arrangements. Similar legislationintroduced in the last session of Congress expired when
Sterling Winthrop made it three this month, as its Omniscan agent became the third MRI contrast product to receive U.S. Food and Drug Administration marketing approval. The nonionic gadolinium agent will be sold in this market by Sanofi Winthrop, a joint
Imaging center firm Medical Resources (MRI) has paid down itsdebt from a leveraged buyout two years ago, raised $6 millionin new capital through an initial public stock offering and isready to start buying centers, according to chairman Ernest J.DeSalvo.
ATL found itself swimming strongly against an ebbing tide in theultrasound market this quarter. The Bothell, WA-based dedicatedultrasound vendor reported third-quarter increases in revenueand income while the financial results of competitors
Clinical development of positron emission tomography could behampered by an ongoing shortage of oxygen-18, the raw materialfor a widely used PET tracer. The shortage is forcing PET researchersto ration isotope supplies and cut back on studies just as
