Radiology Summit — Sessions
Monday, May 7, 2007
General Session
ACR 2007 Regulatory Update
Maurine Spillman-Dennis
Listen to an update on the latest initiatives taking place with the payers on radiology coding, reimbursement and policy.
Concurrent Sessions
Basics for New Managers
Nicole L. Palmer, CPA
This session will include an overview of all areas of radiology business management including billing, finance, compliance, contracting, governance, marketing, human resources, legal and general practice administration.
Understanding Both Sides of the Equation – Teleradiology Providers and Hospitals
Ila S. Rothschild, MA, JD
Discuss credentialing and privileging process, as it applies to teleradiology facilities and hospitals in an overview of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. Review legal and regulatory issues relating to state licensure and confidentiality of patient information. Discover emerging “red flags” such as medical liability and medical malpractice coverage as hospitals contract for teleradiology services outside of the United States, providers, whether on the giving or receiving side of the services. Attendees will be encouraged to share their challenges in meeting accreditation requirements and state or federal regulations as teleradiology providers.
Measuring MR Throughput – How to Demonstrate Process Improvement Success
David A. Dierolf
Performing just one or two more MR examinations per day generates significant revenue. This session will review two case studies where outpatient imaging centers worked to increase MR throughput with minimal additional expense. One of these centers is associated with a large university hospital and the other is an independent imaging center. Discover the key measurements necessary to profile an MR Suite for throughput analysis. Learn how those measurements can be put together to build a simple model for forecasting MR capacity.
Making Sense Out of Radiology Mayhem
Tim Stampp
Six years ago, radiologists were inquiring about starting an imaging center and asking if an imaging center was right for them. Today, where the industry is more competitive and uncertain from a regulatory, insurance and relationship standpoint, radiologists are not asking the same questions. In an environment where more providers are trying to capture a larger piece of the pie for themselves, others are often left on the sidelines asking, "Where do I go from here? What can I do to improve my lot?" These are tough questions that most of us weren't even asking a few years ago. But now our concerns are not so much about starting imaging centers as they are about the future direction of radiology.
Workforce Excellence
Jay Mazurowski, MS, CRA, FAHRA
Great service organizations achieve sustainable growth and profits because they do what other organizations fail to do: they maximize the inherent, individual talents of their employees to connect with customers. Strong, engaged work teams contribute to solid working environments where people are productive, ethical and accountable. In this session you will learn to get the right people, who fit your culture, on the “bus” and set the stage for sustaining highly functioning teams.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
General Session
What Makes the Best Groups Different from the Rest?
Lawrence R. Muroff, MD, FACR
Discuss the difference between the elite practices and the majority of radiology groups in the country. Find out how the great groups distinguish themselves and why they have achieved this status. Registrants who wish to significantly improve their practices and successfully meet the challenges of the 21st century should find this session valuable.
General Session
What Should Radiologists' Role be in Coronary CT Angiography and Other Advanced Cardiac Imaging?
David C. Levin, MD
Coronary CTA is the most dramatic development in imaging in recent years. It will revolutionize the diagnosis of coronary artery disease. There is controversy between radiologists and cardiologists over who is best qualified to perform these studies. Learn the relative merits of both specialties in this debate and strategies radiologists should pursue.
Concurrent Sessions
New Developments in Third Party Payor Audits: Defense and Compliance Strategies
Andrew B. Wachler, JD
This session will focus on compliance risk areas facing radiology providers and will address recent areas of audit activity initiated by third party payors. Discover successful appeal strategies that can be used when a provider is faced with a third party payor audit. Discuss recent changes to the Medicare appeals regulations, which impact the appeals process for Medicare providers and address proactive compliance strategies a provider should adopt to avoid third party payor audits.
Due Diligence for a Radiology Practice Transaction
Nicole L. Palmer, CPA
Acquire a basic knowledge and identify the critical areas of due diligence to be completed for radiology practice transactions in general and the items that a practice should know about a potential future partner.
Hospital Exclusive Provider Agreements: Stories from the Trenches
W. Kenneth Davis, Jr. JD
It’s become more the rule than the exception for radiology groups to have exclusive provider agreements with their hospitals. The quid pro quo underlying these agreements is that the group is granted the exclusive right to provide the professional interpretations in return for granting certain rights to the hospital. As these hospitals have come under increasing legal scrutiny, and as they look for ways to integrate services and improve quality, they have been demanding greater and greater “concessions” by radiology groups. Consequently, the agreements that radiology groups are seeing today are significantly more detailed and burdensome than in the past. And they sometimes contain provisions that seem innocuous on their face, but in reality can pose big risks for radiology groups (and the individual radiologists). This session will review the state of the art in hospital exclusive provider agreements, with a focus on real world experiences and strategies radiology groups can use to obtain a fair and reasonable agreement.
Recruitment, Retention, and Recognition; Building the Three "R's" for Radiology
Fred Gaschen, MBA
Ever wondered how some radiology practices seem to have no trouble recruiting both physicians and staff? Step one is in the retention, not the recruiting as you may think. Building a culture that will attract both new physicians and staff takes commitment and creativity. Recruitment takes planning, organization and innovation. This session will address each of these areas as it relates to recruiting physicians, technicians and support staff.
Diagnostic Coding for Radiology
Julianne Seaman, CPC, CCS-P, RCC
Ever have a claim denied for lack of medical necessity? This session will teach the basics of how to assign a diagnosis code that will support medical necessity of radiology services. We will also explore the proper documentation required to support the diagnosis code to the highest level of specificity.
IT Infrastructure
Craig Roy
Obtain an overview of a successful IT department and infrastructure. Find out appropriate staffing levels, requirements, and digital applications that are a must when evaluating and developing a self supporting IT department.
ACR Session on Accreditation
Leonard Lucey, JD, Krista Bush, RT, MBA
The use of accreditation can improve your facility’s delivery of imaging services to your patients. ACR accreditation uses ACR Guidelines and Standards as the basis for accreditation recommendations and requirements. In addition, ACR accreditation sets personnel and equipment requirements to help ensure quality imaging. As new imaging technology is used in the market place new accreditation programs are also developed ensure that such technology is appropriately utilized and to assist radiologists in meeting the demands of third-party payers.
The Legal Risks in Marketing Your Practice: Ask the Speaker
W. Kenneth Davis, Jr., JD
Everyone knows that marketing is usually a key to business success. But in health care, marketing can be downright treacherous if you don’t have a solid understanding of what is legal and what may be illegal. This session will begin with a brief review of common marketing tools used by radiology businesses and the key laws they potentially implicate. It will next offer practical guidelines on what is permissible, what is impermissible, and what’s in the “gray area” of legal compliance. Most of the session will then be devoted to an extended question and answer opportunity for the participants. Drawing from the formal part of the presentation and the questions from their colleagues, the intent is to develop a sense among the participants for certain basic legal principles and the scrutiny health care businesses have been given under these laws.
So, You Have a Newly Hired a Radiologist…Now What?
Lauren Krebs
You spend a lot of time and effort in the recruitment of talented radiologists. Yet, what do you do on their first day of work; show them to the reading room and wish them luck? Since many newly hired radiologists are coming from years of education and training and have never been a part of a practice, this session will instruct the administrator on how to orient a new physician, make them feel welcome and an integral part of the group, hospital and the community. Find out various methods and checklists to assist you in the orientation process.
Recent Trends in Utilization of the Major Imaging Modalities
David C. Levin, MD
Diagnostic imaging is the most rapidly growing of all physician services. As a result, payers and policymakers are becoming increasingly concerned about the rising costs of imaging. This session will demonstrate which types of imaging are growing the most rapidly and discuss steps being taken to control utilization. Self-referral issues will also be discussed.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Concurrent Sessions
Interpretation Agreements Under the Regulatory Spotlight: A Survey of the Rules and Those that May Emerge.
Thomas W. Greeson, JD
A comprehensive tour through the regulatory landscape of reassignment, purchased interpretation and “overread” arrangements: what is permissible and what is not.
Building the Demand Chain – The Ultimate Physician/Hospital Partnership
Marc D. Halley, MBA
Maintaining an outstanding physician “workshop” and developing distinctive service lines has been the strategic staple for hospitals seeking a competitive advantage during the past few decades. Unfortunately, in most markets these strategies have yielded very little in terms of sustainable competitive advantage. In fact, effective workshop and service line strategies have now become the minimum ante for hospitals to stay in the competitive game in many communities. Increasingly, hospitals are learning to work more aggressively with their affiliated physicians to capture and retain market share, and then to attract that market share to specialists and to the hospital itself. Discussed will be the development and implementation of the medical services Demand Chain to attract retail market share to affiliated specialty physicians and to the hospital. This market share approach to hospital strategy creates the ultimate physician/hospital partnership benefiting all members of the demand chain.
General Session
Smoothing the Leadership Transition
Joseph P. White, CPA, MBA
The graying of the Baby Boomers is putting pressure not only on medical services, but on the availability of physicians, as well. Many radiology groups are facing the retirement of long-time leaders and the need to identify and prepare the leaders of tomorrow.
