Since the American Hospital Association (AHA) began tracking data related to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Recovery Audit Contractors (RAC) program in 2010, 2,127 hospitals have reported a total of $355 million in denied claims.

CHICAGO--Though bone metastases in neuroendocrine tumors are usually sclerotic with increased bone volume, CT alone depicts only 43 percent of Ga-68-DOTATOC/DOTANOC-positive bone lesions, according to a retrospective analysis presented Nov. 29 at the Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

CHICAGO Women in their 40s with no family history of breast cancer are just as likely to develop invasive breast cancer as are women with a family history of the disease, according to a study presented Nov. 29 at the 97th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). These findings indicate that women in this age group would benefit from annual screening mammography.

It comes as no surprise that diagnostic imaging has yet again attracted the attention of policymakers in Washington. Imaging has enjoyed exciting technological advances with corresponding breakthrough applications every decade since the 1970s. The ability to diagnose disease without invasive procedures is now a standard of care expected of physicians and their patients. And the value of imaging in the patient care chain is understood and acknowledged by physicians, but rarely quantified or articulated.

The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Healthhas issued new breast cancer screening guidelines, which recommend against annual screening of women ages 40 to 49 and extending time between screens for older women. The guidelines ignore results of landmark randomized control trials which show that regular screening significantly reduces breast cancer deaths in these women, according to the American College of Radiology.

Over the last decade, the vast majority of men diagnosed with prostate cancer were found to have an early stage of the disease and no evidence that the cancer had spread to lymph nodes or other organs. Considerable research has focused on the best treatment strategy for these patients, who numbered an estimated 217,700 in 2010, and the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) has launched a new trial aimed at assessing quality of life outcomes in two hypofractionated radiotherapy (RT) regimens.

Source: RadiologyCombined analysis of 7T R2* and phase data may be able to distinguish between changes in tissue myelin and iron in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, and could help in characterizing the disease process of MS lesions, according to a study published in the Nov. 14 issue of Radiology.

As the Jan. 1, 2012 deadline to transition to HIPAA 5010 encroaches, those who are ill prepared for the change can breathe a sigh of reliefat least for two more months. On Nov. 17, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of E-Health Standards and Services said it will not enforce action until March 31, 2012, which is good news for unprepared practices as not meeting this deadline could disrupt cash flow.