Financial problems struck Medical Imaging Centers of America ata most inopportune time. The San Diego company was well positionedto take advantage of physician flight from joint ventures in theface of stricter than expected safe harbor regulations. Now
Financial problems struck Medical Imaging Centers of America ata most inopportune time. The San Diego company was well positionedto take advantage of physician flight from joint ventures in theface of stricter than expected safe harbor regulations. Now theimaging services firm may have difficulty financing acquisitionsin the short term.
MICA is a large, publicly traded company with extensive experiencein managing shared imaging services; an ongoing, profitable imagingcenter business; and--until last month--impressive financial results.It placed number 16 on Fortune magazine's list of the 100 fastestgrowing U.S. companies, published this month.
Then something apparently went wrong with its fee-per-scanbusiness. According to executives and analysts interviewed bySCAN, MICA's fall from a 65% increase in net income during itssecond quarter (end-June) to an expected loss in the third quarterdoes not reflect on industry trends as much as on the particularsof MICA's per-scan business. Its stock lost nearly half its valuein a single day in September (SCAN 10/9/91). MICA would not respondto inquiries from SCAN.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Michael L. Jeub, MICA'snew president, indicated that the firm will lay off 40 employeesover the next several months as it tries to pull out of the loss.Jeub replaced Allan H. Danto, who had been in charge of MICA'sChicago-based fee-per-scan business. Danto continues with MICAas executive vice president for sales operations and asset management.Danto had been named president of MICA last May. Prior to that,he headed MICA's Chicago-based shared-service business.
MICA was also pinned with a shareholders suit after its stockcollapsed and the firm called off an intended acquisition of Medifax,a medical records documentation and storage firm.
Part of MICA's decline in revenue may have resulted from higherthan normal past revenues due to the sale of equipment ratherthan regular service revenue. MICA may also have been paying toomuch attention to building the number of its shared-service sitesrather than ensuring that sufficient revenue is generated at existingsites.
Ironically, another company to hit the fast-track Fortune 100was SciMed Life Systems. The angioplasty catheter firm reapedthe benefit of competitor C.R. Bard's temporary withdrawal fromthe angioplasty market, and pulled in strong revenues over thepast year. Last month, Eli Lilly received a patent on a cathetersimilar to SciMed's major angioplasty product, and SciMed's fortunesdived abruptly.
MRI-Based AI Radiomics Model Offers 'Robust' Prediction of Perineural Invasion in Prostate Cancer
July 26th 2024A model that combines MRI-based deep learning radiomics and clinical factors demonstrated an 84.8 percent ROC AUC and a 92.6 percent precision-recall AUC for predicting perineural invasion in prostate cancer cases.
Breast MRI Study Examines Common Factors with False Negatives and False Positives
July 24th 2024The absence of ipsilateral breast hypervascularity is three times more likely to be associated with false-negative findings on breast MRI and non-mass enhancement lesions have a 4.5-fold likelihood of being linked to false-positive results, according to new research.
Can Polyenergetic Reconstruction Help Resolve Streak Artifacts in Photon Counting CT?
July 22nd 2024New research looking at photon-counting computed tomography (PCCT) demonstrated significantly reduced variation and tracheal air density attenuation with polyenergetic reconstruction in contrast to monoenergetic reconstruction on chest CT.