Premier extends Agfa contract

Agfa HealthCare has been awarded a three-year contract by Premier Purchasing Partners, setting up the imaging and health IT company to offer film and other imaging accessories to thousands of U.S. providers.

The agreement prolongs a 15-year partnership between Agfa and Premier, which provides quality assurance and medical device contracting services to member hospitals and is based in Charlotte, N.C.

Over the next three years, Agfa will offer Premier’s 2,500 member hospitals and 75,000 alternate healthcare sites its conventional screen film, mammography film, screens and cassettes, and dry media and dry imagers, according to the Mortsel, Belguim-based company.

Around the web

Positron, a New York-based nuclear imaging company, will now provide Upbeat Cardiology Solutions with advanced PET/CT systems and services. 

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.