Get organized …
Lend a hand …
Listen more …
These may seem like your basic list of New Year’s resolutions, but they’re actually taken straight from our colleagues in the field.
In the latest edition of ADVANCE for Imaging and Radiation Therapy Professionals, I offered my vision for what the ACR would put forward in 2009. You can read what I (and others) had to say here.
It’s no secret that we will face another round of hard issues in the year ahead. With the Obama Administration taking office in just a few days, there are already items on the table that will affect us. Prior authorization is one of them; changes to how Medicare reimburses for the technical component of imaging exams is another.
Education and advocacy remain at the heart of the College’s mission, and we will continue to strengthen our presence in the face of the forthcoming health care legislation.
There are a great many items on the agenda for 2009. New courses will be added to the ACR Education Center over the next few months. ACR staff is working to tailor your membership to your needs, using the newly launched Practice of Radiology Environment Database (PRED), and much more.
Despite any challenges we encounter this year (and there will be challenges), the ACR will remain at the forefront to lead the way. Please write in with what you think radiology’s biggest challenges are for the coming year and how you think the ACR can help.
I very much look forward to your input.
I have read several times about the initiative to bundle services. While those discussions have not specifically addressed radiology professional services it seems to me that the possibility for bundling radiology professional services might be a big risk for the future viability of private practice and the ACR's membership. Does the ACR have any views on this?
Posted by: Bo Trotter | January 26, 2009 at 11:38 AM
One of the biggest issues we face in my community is the growth of CT and MRI in private offices. There is no question this leads to increasd utilization and the ancillary service exclusion is a joke! Accreditation will help, but hopefully the new administration will tackle this issue as it tries to contain the rapid growth in imaging simply for profit.
Posted by: Scott H Allen, MD | January 26, 2009 at 06:31 PM
The ACR must provide strong leadership in 2009. Many members depend on the society for education needs. We must depend on the ACR to also be our voice in both the public and political realms.
To this end, the ACR should provide the gold standard for imaging quality. The accreditation process should be available and accessible to all who perform medical imaging and should set the bar for the standard of care in this country. The new MRI accreditation program is a good step in the right direction. These efforts should continue in 2009. Insurance companies are starting to realize that their patients are having repeat imaging done because of substandard work the first time and that is costing them and their patients money.
The ACR needs to increase its role in patient advocacy. The Image Gently program and new Appropriateness criteria are steps in the right direction. However, these do not go far enough and the Appropriateness criteria should be on a stand-alone website and made much more user friendly, so that even those without medical training could navigate and understand its contents. The ACR must lead in these areas to ensure that the most accurate test is done the first time and that this is done with the least amount of radiation exposure to the patient.
The ACR must stand strongly against self-referral and the unnecessary exams that result from it. These extra studies are not changing patient outcomes and are overburdening our system. This overutilization is placing medical imaging in the center of the healthcare crisis. The ACR should push for a complete ban of in office referral to MRI, CT, and PET as these are the fastest growing components of medical expenditures and have been shown to be overutilized in an article by Jean Mitchell (Medical Care, May 2008).
Commoditization of our specialty is a significant threat to the future of radiology. The ACR should be leading the discussion and helping to identify the problem. A continued stress on quality measures and safety standards should be pursued as these are valuable items that radiologists bring to the table. The ACR has launched the Face of Radiology campaign and the mypatientconnection and myradiologist websites to help increase our specialty identification with patients. These programs should be expanded in 2009.
The ACR needs to work on behalf of patients in relation to imaging cuts. Further cuts will limit access to care as imaging centers are forced to close. This will happen disproportionately in areas where the Medicare population is high. (Where do groups such as AARP stand on this issue?) These patients need a voice and the ACR should work to provide this.
The ACR must increase its media presence and be seen as the public authority on all medical imaging issues. Anytime I see an imaging related story on the national news, I want to see someone representing the ACR giving the expert advice.
Also, the role of RADPAC in the ACR must increase and even though donations are not mandatory, they should be viewed as such by our members this year. No one else will be standing up for us in 2009. They should not have to do it with one hand tied behind their back.
Posted by: Thomas Knight MD | February 02, 2009 at 02:55 PM