From the July 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


HCBN: What effect have reimbursement cuts had on independent imaging centers?
AJ: I think there are two things. One is that the reimbursement cuts primarily have happened to independent centers and not as much yet to hospitals. I think what we’ve seen is a constant reduction since 2007 — it’s gotten a lot greater over the last few years. This is both government payors and private insurance companies because many of the insurance companies follow what Medicare does.

What you’re seeing on the hospital side is a lot of hospitals have kept healthy reimbursement contracts. They have purchased independent centers and therefore are able to keep some of those rates. Again, for the independent center it’s becoming harder to compete because their reimbursements have gone down. The other part of it is the expectation of services continually increases, which I think is a good thing in health care and for the industry, but you’re faced with purchasing new technology, you’re faced with electronic health records and continuing to be able to provide patients and referring physicians with multiple avenues on how to get the reports and images via iPad or Droid. All this costs money. Turnaround times and getting the information back to the patient and physician is very important.
We’re hoping that [independent imaging center reimbursements] will stay somewhat neutral over the next few years and then with quality incentives, they’ll begin to rise again.

HCBN: What sorts of things are independent imaging centers doing to try to weather the cuts?
AJ: They need to definitely be ahead with respect to new programming. Being proactive, working with the referring physicians to show them how other new technology or new laws or new pieces of care can really help improve the patient situation.

I think coordinating care in a very timely fashion. If a woman gets a mammogram —making sure that if there are some suspicious findings, an ultrasound can be done immediately and potentially a breast MRI and if there is a suspicious mass, having the ability to do a biopsy within a few days. That still keeps competitive spirits and it’s best for patient care.

Independent groups could help one another with learning new programs. We find that a lot of times when independents get together in forums — they can share ideas, and learn from one another on how to increase their utilization and their identity.

The other thing is —imaging centers typically have a good team. An imaging center usually has between 10 and 20 employees and using that team and their knowledge, imaging centers and radiologists have typically been at the forefront of technology. What we’re seeing is that they can aggregate other doctors and work on things such as accountable care organizations or even work with insurance companies to help improve care to their population and in return, imaging centers can get greater utilization and potentially an increased reimbursement with quality incentives.

July 2014 Magazine

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