Healthcare spending in the U.S. grew by 3.6 percent in 2013, according to a study published in Health Affairs. 

CHICAGO—Current biomedical research is tackling a number of major issues and contains myriad opportunities for imaging, but financial concerns loom large as research budgets fail to keep up with inflation, according to National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, who delivered a special lecture last week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

As the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) is set to implement its 10th revision next year, radiologists were urged at a Dec. 1 session at RSNA 2014 to begin planning now to stay ahead of the coming changes.

A new crowdsharing site that discloses the true cost for patients of common, and expensive, procedures could pave the way for important dialogue between insurance providers, physicians and the customer/patient.

Thanks to reimbursement rate cuts, there’s been an identifiable shift from MR exams performed in private offices to hospital outpatient departments, according to a new study in the Journal of the American College of Radiology published Nov. 15.

In terms of consumer transparency, radiology patients do not have access to information that would assist them in choosing a provider based on quality of care or price of services, argued a recent article published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

Part of a provider’s responsibility when caring for patients is to make sure they are well-informed so they can make smart decisions about their own health, and this week we learned about some tools to help in this effort.

Research suggests patients might be thriftier shoppers if given the right tools. When a group of patients used a price transparency platform, it resulted in lowering claims payments for advanced imaging services by more than 13 percent, according to a study published in the Oct. 22/29 issue of JAMA.