The Access to Medical Imaging Coalition has submitted a letter to Congress signed by 22 patient advocacy organizations urging them to protect advanced medical imaging and radiation therapy services against further reimbursement cuts and radiology benefit manager and prior authorization proposals.

The Canadian CT Head Rule provides a sensitive, specific and cost-effective clinical prediction rule, according to a systemic review published in the September issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine.

The University of Wisconsin (UW) School of Medicine and Public Health, GE Healthcare and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation have reached new research collaboration and technology invention agreements that will result in the creation of a new imaging research facility.

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) have befuddled imagers, with radiologists wondering how the specialty might fit into a model seemingly focused on primary care. ACOs have been a hot topic for several years, and generate many unanswered questions. How will the model differ from health maintenance organizations? What methods will they use to cut spending? The answers remain elusive, but with more than 200 ACOs in various stages of operation in the U.S., its time for radiologists to take charge of defining imagings role in the ACO model.

Annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage reached $15,745 in 2012, up 4 percent from 2011, with workers on average paying $4,316 toward the cost of their coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust 2012 Employer Health Benefits Survey.

Payers and employers seeking strategies for lowering costs for nonemergency procedures, such as cardiac surgery and imaging tests such as colonoscopy, may want to consider two insurance benefits designs, based on a report in the September issue of Health Affairs. Reference pricing and centers-of-excellence contracting offer two different approaches for motivating beneficiaries to choose low-cost, high-quality care, according to the authors.

Healthcare stakeholders offer contradictory notions of the direction of their business. Most believe current business models are sustainable even though economic and legislative trends point in a different direction, according to a recent KPMG survey.

ORLANDO, Fla.There are a number of models for handling imaging equipment service costs, but whatever strategy a practice chooses, there are multiple ways to make service agreements work in a practices favor, according to a presentation Aug. 14 at the 40th annual meeting of AHRA: the Association for Medical Imaging Management.