Facility Management

Demand drops for low-field scanners follows measures introduced to preserve MR quality

Efforts from clinical imaging advocates to delay rather than thwart the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 were rewarded in the Senate Thursday with the introduction of a bill calling for a two-year moratorium. The piece mirrors legislation introduced in June by the House of Representatives asking the Government Accountability Office to analyze the impact of Medicare reimbursement cuts.

The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 has created quite a stir in medical imaging. If the current provisions remain intact, outpatient imaging providers could see a 45% reduction in Medicare reimbursement next year.

MR spectroscopy imaging is highly accurate for early detection of prostate cancer in asymptomatic patients, with 87% sensitivity and 93% specificity, according to new research from Spain.

By combining microcoils with the injection of a foaming agent, U.S. interventional radiologists hope to treat testicular atrophy in young boys, reverse infertility in some men, and relieve a potentially disabling condition in women.

Complications in children's interventions cost hundreds of millions of dollars each year

Most 3T MR systems are sold to university hospitals and research facilities, and relatively few go to private practices.

Early adopters educate insurers about value of each component of fusion imaging

A cost-effectiveness study performed by Thomas Jefferson University researchers indicates cardiac CT angiography makes financial sense in nonemergent cases if the price is appropriate.

MI techniques recommend against unnecessary surgeries and monitor therapy

Pending changes to Medicare in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 call for nonhospital outpatient technical fee reimbursement to be the lesser amount of either the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS) or the physician fee schedule.

Historians may look back on May 8, 2006, as a turning point in the history of molecular imaging. Before then, FDG-PET was chronically tangled in political problems that slowed its entry into the clinical mainstream.

The truce over cardiac CT between cardiologists and radiologists showed signs of strain last week at the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography meeting in Washington, DC, when several radiologists charged that the endorsement of clinical guidelines by the society favored cardiologists.

The imaging community pleaded with Congress July 18 to delay cuts in Medicare reimbursement mandated by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 and scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2007. Representatives of providers and vendors presented testimony extolling the virtues of imaging and bewailing the legislation that could exact as much as $8 billion from Medicare reimbursements annually.

Various representatives of the imaging community got a chance yesterday to plead their case before Congress for a two-year delay on Medicare reimbursement cuts slated to take effect Jan. 1, 2007.

Volumetric MR scanning can accurately track structural changes preceding the onset of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, according to a study by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. MR could sound the alarm on disease progression earlier than standard blood and urine tests.

Primedix Health Systems has signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire Radiologix. If the deal, valued at $208 million (including net debt) goes through, it will create the largest owner and operator of fixed-site outpatient imaging centers in the U.S. with 132 locations. Primedex owns and operates 62 facilities. Radiologix owns or operates 70.

The government surprised a few imagers with a change in Medicare reimbursement that was not as draconian as expected.

Few diseases pose as many diagnostic challenges as ovarian cancer. Unlike other gynecologic cancers, in which patients can present with tell-tale conditions while the disease is still at an early stage, two-thirds of ovarian cancer cases are advanced when first detected. Identifying postsurgical recurrence is also difficult. According to several studies presented at the 2005 RSNA meeting, PET/CT may have an important role to play in detecting and evaluating this silent killer.

A cost-effectiveness study by Thomas Jefferson University researchers indicates cardiac CT angiography makes financial sense in nonemergent cases if the price is appropriate.

In this issue, legal columnist Thomas Greeson wades squarely into one of radiology's hottest topics today: cardiac CT overreads by radiologists. Under such scenarios, cardiologists interpret images of the heart and related vessels and leave the rest of the chest to radiologists. These marriages of convenience are strongly promoted in some quarters as avoiding destructive turf battles and assuring that patients get the best possible care following a chest CT scan.

Prostate imaging can be a lonely, thankless line of work for radiologists. Specialists are scarce, and urologists have the upper hand. Cancer screening is controversial, and imaging research has yielded a mixed bag of results. Nevertheless, prostate guru Dr. Ethan Halpern is bullish about the future.

Buoyed by highly promising preliminary results, radiologists and cardiologists are lining up to learn coronary artery CT. Interest is growing in new CCT fellowships and medical conferences offering CCT training. Record sales of cardiovascular 64-slice CT scanners, many installed in the first half of 2006, are fueling the demand.

I believe myself fortunate to have a soapbox-this column in DI-from which to opine my views on the legal and regulatory issues encountered in my practice representing radiologists. Few issues have been as nettlesome, or as hot politically, as the one involving shared arrangements for radiologists and cardiologists to interpret cardiac CT angiography studies. It is my strongly held view that there are significant regulatory issues with many of these shared reading or overread arrangements between cardiologists and radiologists. If such arrangements are not structured correctly, I am concerned radiologists could face legal exposure.

Congressional bill would delay DRAAgfa formalizes splitGE opens clinical center in India