Radiology Informatics and Radiology Reimbursement Radiology Informatics The articles by Branstetter, Bartholmai and Channin (2004) and Kohli, Dreyer and Geis (2015) make an important contribution to the knowledge base of radiology informatics. The overall delivery of health care has benefited greatly from the technology explosion that has affected almost every industry. This benefit has been highly visible in the practice of radiology. The introductions of radiology information systems, voice recognition dictation systems, and picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) led to significant advancements in workflow efficiencies. To this end, both articles examine informatics innovations of the past several decades that have immensely enhanced …show more content…
At the same time, the future of radiology represents unprecedented opportunities and challenges for radiologists. The articles clarify some of the potential aspects for future growth with regard to the utilization of IT in radiology. For example, many image producers believe that the report is the significant work product. To these individuals, the images are solely for the use of the diagnostic interpreter. From this perspective, distribution of images is unnecessary. Although radiologists, for the most part, have embraced the sharing of images, other image producers, such as cardiologists and pathologists, have not. Overcoming this perceptual hurdle is necessary to implement a comprehensive enterprise imaging strategy. The technological revolution enabling PACS has also created platforms for teleradiology. Because radiologists no longer require proximity to clinical colleagues or patients, teleradiology makes care possible in remote locations where radiologists may not be physically …show more content…
While the fate of the Affordable Care Act is unknown amid the current political climate, its establishment has expanded the pool of insured patients. With a greater insured population base available, the probability of imaging utilization is more likely. Forman's article establishes a rather pessimistic view of the future of radiology reimbursements based on the identified three key legislative concerns. Krishnaraj et al., in turn, identify appropriate strategies for radiologists to become leaders in clinical excellence initiatives with regard to improving patient experience, developing radiology value proposition, and promoting radiology's contribution to public and population health. Overall, with regard to the current practice, as a result of the new health care reform legislation that is focused on expanding healthcare access for the uninsured and cost reductions, as well as the large percentage of uninsured Americans and a consistent increase in health care spending, the implementation of organizational strategies within the healthcare industry that focus on a more efficient and effective delivery system must be recognized as a
Radiologic technology is a satisfying and rewarding career. It is a technical and refined science. As a radiological technologist, there are many essential duties and responsibilities that have to be fulfilled in order to be a good one. First of all, radiological technologists have to maintain a well-mannered and professional behavior when gathering information. They have to assure their patients that they are in good hands therefore; they give patients the uppermost quality of care and services. Second of all, the main responsibility of a healthcare provider is to keep all knowledge of a patient’s health record confidential or secluded. That means radiological technologists cannot talk about patients at home or with friends and classmates
The next factor to consider is competitive position and healthcare firms can substantially ensure higher quality of care when pricing there products and services at an increased level. Aside from pricing, cost is another major aspect since it can drastically affect a company’s competitive position. A hard investment would involve a MRI device that insurance companies or healthcare organizations could reimburse the office at a higher rate for providing the patients of improved cost-efficient results. As a result, such benefits accrue primarily from savings in drug expenditures, improved utilization of radiology tests, better capture of charges, and decreased billing errors, (Wang et al., 2003). Physician providers are always in competition with the latest and greatest technology, EMR system, and most effective medication for patients.
There are diverse interdisciplinary relationships in the health care system. Among these relationships include radiology, working in the emergency room, or working in a pharmaceutical company, functioning effectively as a team for best results. The marketing department needs to work together with the development department to ensure the provision of effective services, support and stability. As a medical discipline, Radiology utilizes images, via diverse physical agents and techniques including X-ray, radiography, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography, magnetic fields to diagnose and treat diseases, ( ). Also, professionals make adequate use of intervention radiology (generally minimum invasive) medical procedures, aided by the use of imaging technology to diagnose and treat diseases. ( ).
According to Duford (2009), high dollar radiology costs, which have a twenty percent annual growth rate, are now the fastest rising medical expense. The author also stated, according to a report by the Association of Health Insurance Plans, one hundred billion dollars a year are spent on imaging services in the United States and expects to double in four years (Duford, 2009). Completing the task is overwhelming because there are many providers to reach and convince to reconsider his or her way of using high dollar radiology. Completing the task is overwhelming on the member side as well because there is education to provide to members as to why his or her benefits will not cover any high dollar radiology services until other course of treatment have been tried and failed. The task is difficult too because consumers are demanding these high dollar radiology services for prevention as well as diagnosis purposes (Duford, 2009).
In the past several years, there have been several changes in economic policy at federal and state levels. The two economic policies that present to be the most precedent for healthcare leaders with concern to facility reimbursement are the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the switch from volume to value reimbursement. First, there is the ACA policy, which have affected healthcare facilities and their reimbursement methods. In fact, ever since this policy was implemented, provider reimbursement has started to decrease in terms of fee-for-service payments (The Common-Wealth Fund, 2015). In other words, the intention of this policy was to provide budget relief to the government payers as well as giving providers an incentive to provider patients with great quality of care.
In a world of budget cut and layoffs, medical corporations face new and different challenges in addition to helping and healing patients. I used to work as a medical biller in a physician’s office for five years and I experienced how difficult for the health care providers to get reimbursed. The government and the insurance companies have been limiting the budget towards the health care services. This action also affects the hospitals greatly because Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and some policymakers have requested the hospitals to reduce the
Since the optical imaging system makes the medical record concurrently available via the web or server, most of coders and chart analysis staff can work at home. Individual working from home must meet productivity and quality standards before this privileged is granted and retention of staff is very good. Contract coders are also able to coder remotely. This does decrease their cost and ensure quality of coding while at the same time emphasizing the volume.
Blazona, B., & Koncar, M. (2007). HL7 and DICOM based integration of radiology departments with healthcare enterprise information systems. International Journal Of Medical Informatics, 76(Supplement 3), S425-S432. doi:10.1016/j.i
Patients should be given an opportunity to shop quality healthcare providers, prices and services. We provide competitive prices and services at our radiology practices, patients are able to find this information with their local insurance company or online. The organization takes all measures not to violated HIPPA guidelines, by implement technology that will share patient information across the web without fear of violation of HIPPA. Patients seem to be very satisfied with this system; it saves them a trip to the office and provides immediate results of their exam. They’re able to follow-up or make decisions with their doctors to expedite the needed care. Transparency also has an competitive advantage. Organizations that list their services and prices, prompts other similar entities to match or beat prices, making it affordable for the
This is displayed by the use of information and technology to communicate, manage knowledge, decrease error and support decision making. The majority of the healthcare world is ran by technology. Almost all charting is done on computers, which allows more than one healthcare professional to view the patients chart at one time. This technology also allows the patient to access their records online keeping them informed of test results. For example, this is exemplified by physicians entering their own orders into the computer. This prevents the use of unapproved abbreviations and mishandling of
Besides, the financial incentives for hospitals and physicians that belong to ACOs, Jaffery & Golden 2013, asked and then answered the question “why would providers join this program? One reason is to prepare for the future”. Fee-for-service reimbursement, which has been how hospitals get paid for their services rely solely on the volume of patient seen without taking into consideration the quality of care provided. Payers today, such as government, commercial insurers, employers, and individual consumers are now requesting on value -based-payment, which consist of delivering the highest level of care at a lower cost. The volume based system even though the traditional way of how payments are made is not a viable long-term option (Jaffery and Golden, 2013, p.98).
How Information System’s Assist: The facility states that it offers their physicians and patients access to the “latest high-tech imaging services, digital medical technology and specialized equipment.” This equipment includes the use of digital radiology imaging, digital echocardiograms and digital cardiac catheterization. The facility also uses an Electronic Medical Record system, which they claim enhances patient safety and maximizes physician connectivity. Having this equipment helps the facility differentiate itself from its
The real problem as pertains to the reimbursement of managed care organizations is that these managed care has had an effect on slowing the rates of growth concerning the costs of hospitals and specialist physicians. For both the hospitals and practitioners, the sources of revenue have been shifted with over 20 percent of the charges being paid from the pocket, others coming from third parties who demand for complex accounting of the charges, lack a pre-authorization process and they can review in a retrospective manner and deny the reimbursement (Furrow et al., 2013). The
Historically, reimbursement has been Fee-For-Service (FFS): tied to volume of visits, hospitalizations, procedures, and tests. This reimbursement structure creates misaligned incentives and fragmented, suboptimal patient care resulting in burgeoning costs and a lack of focus on outcomes. As a result, CMS and the industry have been
On the other hand, technology also presents the business with some cost effective solutions. R4 our clinical system is linked to each Practice and Head office, ensuring that information is easily accessible and transferrable between. As our acquisitions focuses more towards the north and southwest areas of the country, we have started to trial video conferencing for all field area business