| To view this newsletter as an HTML page, click here. | | BROUGHT TO YOU COURTESY OF: | | | | SPONSORED BY: |  | | -May 17, 2006 • Volume 1, Number 6 | | | | | | Hand Wringing Is Not a Solution | By Curtis Kauffman-Pickelle
 | I was impressed by the crowd. Not just the fact that there were more than 100 imaging center executives, radiologists, and administrators gathered, but with the fact that they all came to the RCG Healthcare symposium in Las Vegas at the end of March to get serious about their future. There was not a hand wringer in the group and those that I talked to indicated that they fully intended to be among the winners in a post-DRA imaging world.
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These semi-annual symposia that RCG, Imaging Economics, Medical Imaging, Practice Builders, and the Imaging Center Institute co-sponsor have over the past few years drawn attendees from various segments of the outpatient imaging spectrum, but there was a certain urgency about this most recent event, characterized by very active participation and true representation of today’s imaging leaders. These people were ready to make something happen…
READ MORE >> | | | | Lobbying Against DRA Scores Victories but Battle is Far From Over | Grassroots lobbying can at times seem more frustrating than helpful. Tremendous effort is invested in contacting legislators via e-mail, fax, phone, and in-person visits and often nothing seems to happen. But when it works, it can create successes that millions of dollars for professional lobbying could not match.
Grassroots lobbying for a repeal of the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) cuts to diagnostic imaging services scored just such a victory in April when a group of radiologists from New York convinced Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), a registered nurse turned Congresswoman, to introduce HR 5238, a bill to eliminate the adjustments in Medicare payments for imaging services made by section 5102 of the DRA...
READ THE FULL STORY IN LEGISLATIVE REPORT >> | | | | Is Your Center an Endangered Species? | If the DRA of 2005 does come to pass, now is the time to assess the potential impact on your operation. In a high fixed-asset investment, environment such as MRI and CT, significant procedural volumes are required to arrive at breakeven. An article by MR expert Robert Bell, PhD, published in the May issue of Imaging Economics, offers analyses of eight different hypothetical operations and the extent to which the shift to the HOPPS reimbursement level raises the breakeven...
READ THE FULL STORY ON IMAGINGBIZ.COM >> | | | | Outpatient Imaging’s Next High-Stakes Issue | Those who follow reimbursement will recall that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid advised radiology, radiation oncology, and cardiology to run the numbers on practice expenses and produce a fresh analysis of what each procedure costs on the technical side due to the impending demise of the Non-Physician Work Pool (NPWP)...
READ THE FULL STORY ON IMAGINGBIZ.COM >> | | | | America’s Biggest Payor at Risk | If there is a question about the urgency with which Congress will need to act to ensure the future of Medicare, the recent report from the Medicare Trustees has heaped flames on the fire with a prediction that shortens the time to bankruptcy for both the Medicare and the Social Security programs. Expenditures of the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, which pays hospital benefits, are projected to exceed taxes and other dedicated revenue in 2006...
READ THE FULL STORY ON IMAGINGBIZ.COM >> | | |  | | |
| |  | | | | Role of Imaging in Cancer Care | NEMA was in Washington recently to emphasize to lawmakers the importance of medical imaging in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer...
READ MORE IN IMAGINGBIZ.COM >> | | | | RA Bill Clears Both Houses in Florida | If the governor signs the Radiological Personnel Certification Act, Florida will join the 3 other states that regulate the radiologist assistant, physician extender for radiologists.. The bill specifies educational requirements, fees, and includes a requirement for clinical preceptorship with a radiologist. Because the RA will be required to have at least a bachelor’s degree, compensation for this position may exceed that of a radiologic technologist.
READ MORE IN IMAGINGBIZ.COM >> | | | | Managed Care Participation Declines | The percentage of US physicians who do not participate in managed care plans increased to 11.5% in 2004-2005, up from 9.2% in 2000-2001 and 8.6% percent in 1998-1999, according to a report from the Center for Studying Health System Change.
READ MORE IN IMAGINGBIZ.COM >> | | |  | | |  | | | | One Exam, Two Purposes | Hologic has received FDA clearance to use the information from a standard low dose 10 second Instant Vertebral Assessment (IVA) osteoporosis test on its Discovery DXA system as a predictor for cardiovascular disease by visualizing abdominal aortic calcification, which is associated with cardiovascular disease.
READ MORE >> | | | | Next Generation FFDM Cleared | GE Healthcare has received FDA approval for its new mammography platform, the Senographe® Essential, offering significant improvement in the active field of view with a 24 x 31 cm detector size.
READ MORE >> | | | | Archive Across Provider Lines | InDex® Link from InSite offers providers the ability to share patient exams across multiple locations and all PACS DICOM platforms without sharing direct access to the institution’s complete digital environments.
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