Radiology Today E-Newsletter

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E-News Exclusive

Breast Density Notification

Administrative Challenges in Radiology

SNMMI Reporter's Notebook

Penguin Anatomy

On the Case

Komen Accused of Overselling Mammograms

What's Behind the Drop in Imaging?

Tech Charged as 'Serial Infector'

Worth Repeating

“We have become very good at measuring the risks associated with radiation procedures, but not as good at measuring their benefits. … More work should be done to assess whether increased use of radiation procedures translates into better health outcomes for patients. With that information we will have numbers for both sides of the equation and will then be able to do a true risk/benefit analysis to answer this very important public health question.”

— Timothy J. Jorgensen, PhD, MPH, as reported by MedPage Today

With ever-growing healthcare costs consuming approximately 18% of the gross domestic product, the only share of the US economy that is bigger than healthcare is the aggregate of everything that isn’t healthcare. That observation comes from Brian Klepper, PhD, whose companies provide healthcare clinics for corporate employees. He believes that healthcare costs have become such a drag on the entire economy that businesses outside of healthcare are feeling the squeeze enough to take serious action, which includes working with companies such as Klepper’s to reduce healthcare costs. As this month’s E-news Exclusive discusses, medical imaging is a major target of those cost-reduction objectives.

— Jim Knaub, editor

Is Your Facility Ready to Compete in the World
of the $450 MRI Technical Fee?
By Jim Knaub

Brian Klepper, PhD, firmly believes that imaging departments and hospitals will face a whole new level of severe price and margin competition in the coming years. And Klepper isn’t just making predictions; he’s that kind of competitor. He’s a principal and chief development officer for WeCare TLC, LLC, a worksite primary care clinic and medical management firm based in Longwood, Florida, and managing principal of Healthcare Performance Inc, a healthcare strategy and business development practice based in Atlantic Beach, Florida.

Klepper’s companies develop and manage worksite primary care clinics for employers and manage specialty care for their employees. Companies like his are responding to employers’ critical need to reduce employee healthcare costs and delivering 20% to 25% reductions, he says. Speaking at the AHRA annual meeting in Kissimmee, Florida, on August 14, Klepper told the audience that his company had recently negotiated a deal in Indiana for $450 MRI exams in a market that had technical fees ranging between $1,750 and $3,200. Simply put, they see a market opportunity in an often overpriced market.

Full Story »

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Breast Density Notification
Considered both helpful and confusing for patients, notification laws are expanding across the nation. Read more »

Administrative Challenges in Radiology
A Radiology Today interview with incoming AHRA president Carlos Vasquez, MSM, RT(R), CRA, FAHRA. Read more »

SNMMI Reporter’s Notebook
Nuclear medicine news from the society’s recent annual meeting in Miami.
Read more »

Penguin Anatomy
Veterinarians at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago are utilizing 3D reconstructions and ultrasound technologies to produce new perspectives on the creatures in their keep.
Read more »

On the Case
Check out our original case study department, edited by radiologist Rahul V. Pawar, MD. Read more »

Also, you can check out the entire issue in the Radiology Today digital edition.

Komen Accused of Overselling Mammograms
Susan G. Komen for the Cure recently made ABC News headlines when two Dartmouth professors called out the organization for manipulating breast cancer survival statistics in its advertisements, in essence overselling the benefits of mammography.

What’s Behind the Drop in Imaging?
In a MedPage Today article, the ACR comments on a recent study looking at reasons for the slow growth of imaging. Is it prior authorization, higher out-of-pocket costs, reimbursement cuts, or something else?

Tech Charged as ‘Serial Infector’
A traveling lab technician has been indicted in a New Hampshire hepatitis C outbreak, with the investigation continuing in at least six other states. According to CBS News, David Kwiatkowski is accused of reusing needles at a hospital catheterization lab, possibly infecting more than two dozen people with the disease.

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