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ACR News: PECOS Enrollment Deadline for Referring Physicians Clarified

(ACR) -- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) held an open door forum to clarify the May 5, 2010, federal register notice announcement that the referring or ordering physician is required to establish an enrollment record in the Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 26, 2010 at 10:30am — No Comments

ACR News: Physician Groups File Lawsuit Against FTC Red Flags Rule

(ACR) - According to a news release issued by the American Medical Association (AMA), on May 21, the AMA, American Osteopathic Association and the Medical Society of the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to prevent the Federal Trade… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 25, 2010 at 10:30am — No Comments

Merge Healthcare to Showcase Comprehensive Medical Imaging I.T. Solutions Portfolio at Upcoming Events

MILWAUKEE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Merge Healthcare (NASDAQ:MRGE), a leading Health IT solutions provider, is taking its newly-expanded medical imaging product portfolio on the road over the next few weeks to several upcoming trade shows. At all of the conferences, Merge will introduce customers to new mobile solutions for enhancing the patient experience in health IT.

Merge is highlighting a comprehensive radiology solution suite at the Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA)… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 25, 2010 at 9:49am — No Comments

ACR Case in Point Preview for this Week

Please visit
http://caseinpoint.acr.org for the great cases of the week!

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 24, 2010 at 8:45am — No Comments

ACR Contrast Manual Version 7 now available!

The ACR has just announced the publication of the latest version of the ACR Contrast Manual now on its seventh iteration! It is now no longer a PDF document and is a web-only resource to allow for constant updates. Please visit the following website to read more about contrast reactions and the latest guidelines issued by the American College of Radiology regarding all procedures and guidelines pertaining to contrast administration/safety.…

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Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 20, 2010 at 9:01am — No Comments

ACR AMCLC Presentations Continue

The American College of Radiology announced in an "AMCLC Daily Wrap Up" that "Daniel Picus, MD, FACR, RCC, chair of the ACR Committee on Coding and Nomenclature (C&N), reported a busy year for C&N with 42 new codes, 30 deletions, and 25 revisions related to radiology that are expected to go into effect January 2011." But, "while new codes are, on the whole, positive for radiology, the development of new codes doesn't come without risk." Meanwhile, "managed care payers, said Mark O.… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 20, 2010 at 8:55am — No Comments

Productivity-based compensation: why it’s such a challenge

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- At best, productivity-based compensation is a hot topic; at worst, it is potentially the downfall of those promoting it—if not threatening to the very survival of a group. Are there groups compensating on a productivity-based model? Yes, but very few.

As technology has improved productivity of radiologists overall, it has also contributed to the disparity between those at the top of the production scale and those at the bottom. In a typical group, there… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 19, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Of skin-colored gowns and brain MRI

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- Every so often you come across an idea that has so much merit you can’t imagine why somebody hadn’t come up with it before. Such is the case with hospital gowns matched to a patient’s skin color. Although sky blue and forest green might be stunning on the right patient, it is hard to imagine either one helping docs spot signs of diseases that can be found in skin color changes.

Human eyes are hardwired to detect these changes, say the folks at Rensselaer… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 18, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

AMCLC Daily Wrap Up: Tuesday, May 18, 2010

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Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 18, 2010 at 8:30am — No Comments

Leadership and new thinking needed to preserve hospital practice contracts

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- The landscape for hospital-based radiologists has shifted dramatically in the last couple of years and they’ll need to update their thinking if they hope to preserve their hospital contracts, and perhaps, a significant role in medicine, a pair of presenters said Sunday at the American Roentgen Ray Society meeting in San Diego.

Speaking with Diagnostic Imaging in advance of a special forum on practice business issues, Drs. Lawrence Muroff and Alan Kaye… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 17, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

AMCLC Daily Wrap Up: Monday, May 17, 2010

Securing Radiology’s Place in Health Care

Speakers report on residents, research, and the specialty’s relationships.…

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Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 17, 2010 at 8:30am — No Comments

RadNet buys Sonix Medical Resources out of bankruptcy

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- RadNet acquired three more multimodality facilities on Tuesday, concluding the company's second acquisition in as many months. The new purchase, Sonix Medical Resources, came from a bankruptcy proceeding in New York.

See full article and related articles at DiagnosticImaging.com

This article was republished with… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 16, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

ACR AMCLC Meeting Roundup for May 16th 2010

Taking Radiology Off the Menu

AMCLC empowers radiologists to safeguard the specialty from external forces.…

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Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 16, 2010 at 8:30am — No Comments

Is imaging being overused on Medicare cancer patients?

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- The use—and cost—of modern imaging was rising among Medicare patients with cancer as they entered the 21st century, according to research released April 27 by the Journal of the American Medical Association. From 1999 through 2006, imaging costs rose at a faster rate among Medicare beneficiaries than any other cost associated with their fight against cancer.

The trend is likely continuing, according to the Duke University researchers who carried out the… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 15, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

House panel chairs ask accountability office to probe imaging self-referral

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- At the request of the American College of Radiology, House Energy and Commerce chair Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Ways & Means Committee chair Rep. Sandy Levin (D-MI), and Ways & Means Subcommittee on Health chair Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) have called on the General Accountability Office to perform a study regarding the effects of physician self-referral of advanced medical imaging and radiation therapy treatments on Medicare spending.

Previous GAO… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 14, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Radiologist Salary

(SOURCE: Salary Wizard)

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 14, 2010 at 12:26am — No Comments

Philips’ Q1 numbers offer hope for improved imaging marketplace

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- For the first time in a year and a half, orders for Philips medical imaging equipment edged up in North America. It is the first tangible glimmer of hope that the great imaging recession may finally be over.

Executives at imaging companies have been telling me for months that the installed base had aged more in the last few years than ever before. Equipment that would otherwise have been replaced was still in service, kept going by upgrades and updates.… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 12, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

A new CT generation takes shape: thinking outside the circle

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- By Greg Freiherr | April 16, 2010

Thirty-three years ago, University Hospitals in Madison, WI, unveiled to the local media a device that just about everybody had some fun with, the CAT scanner. Working as I was at the time for the UW medical school, I wrote the story for that unveiling. Dutifully I stepped aside as my boss lay on the table for faux pictures and video of the device “in action.” Publication of a cartoon cat looking intensely through a… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 11, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Changes in medical staff bylaws could protect radiology contracts

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- Support from hospital medical staff and bylaws that give the staff a stronger role in scrutinizing staffing decisions could help protect radiology practices against hospital management dropping their contracts, the administrator of one of the largest practices in the country contends.

The practice, Radiology Associates of Sacramento, just lost a major contract with Sutter Health, even though the practice enjoyed strong support from the Sutter medical… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 10, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

More money, better care hinge on wider use of images

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) --

Radiologists express their diagnostic findings in words, their exam reports typically containing not a single image. They would be better served politically, and their referring physicians and patients clinically, if they shared their images as well as their conclusions.

While text-only… Continue

Added by radRounds Radiology Network on May 9, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments