Facility Management

A last-minute buying binge will not permit hospitals to escapethe proposed phase-out of the Medicare capital pass-through program(SCAN 2/13/91). Payments for old medical equipment will be protectedonly if the equipment was purchased prior to October

Norland is enlarging its U.S. organization, following the bonedensitometer company's acquisition last year by Novatech Management(SCAN 5/23/90). Novatech is a New York health-care investmentcompany partially owned by Albert S. Waxman, founder and

A government decision to replace the Medicare capital pass-throughprogram with a system of flat annual payments could be the mostsignificant change in how Medicare makes payments to hospitalssince the advent of diagnosis-related groups eight years

Three former Fonar executives have joined with a fourth partnerto form Imaging Systems International of Boca Raton, FL, a magneticresonance imaging center firm. ISI's first center, North GeorgiaDiagnostic Imaging of Atlanta, opened in June, according to

Americans' insistence on high-quality, high-tech health care couldinsulate the medical imaging market from the economic downturnfacing most of the nation's industries. Company revenues fromsales of x-ray equipment grew by 11.8% in 1990, according to

Medscan, a Philadelphia imaging center company, appeared at the1990 Radiological Society of North America with a new identityand plans for expanded services. Although the firm's RSNA exhibitand product literature bore the label Americare Technologies

Competition in computed radiography may soon heat up for Fuji,the lone pioneer in the CR market for nearly a decade. Both Kodakand Agfa showed works-in-progress CR units at the 1990 RadiologicalSociety of North America meeting. Clinicians are showing

Industry executives disturbed by financial analysts' quarterlyfixation might be interested to know that some analysts preferto think long-term. A 21-year veteran health-care analyst haslaunched his own consulting business and is refreshed by the changeof

Declining Medicare reimbursement for magnetic resonance imagingscans combined with bargain-shopping by managed-health-care groupsspells trouble for high-field MRI centers, said Leonard F. Vernon,president and CEO of Imaging Management Associates. Centers

Tight reimbursement and improvements in low-field technology havecombined to force down the prices of magnetic resonance imagingsystems sold in Japan and Europe. Japanese MRI prices have beendeclining for at least two years, and this trend has spread

Like many groups, we feel like we are always in the midst of negotiations with our hospital. During each renegotiation, it seems that the hospital starts by describing our deficiencies. Often, the barrage would start before the negotiations commenced. Missed cases were brought up, as were issues related to personnel conflicts. Irregularities in report turnaround might be mentioned, and unhappy clinicians seemed to suddenly surface.

In the first of this four-part series, Medical Management Professionals Inc.'s Jana Landreth discusses effective metrics for measuring revenue and the single biggest cause of lost revenue for hospital-based radiologists.