Healthcare is ever changing, so it’s important to stay up to date on advancements and issues that may impact the development, operation, maintenance, and growth of your services. Here are some important developments:
Docs risk reputation damage by reporting minimal MIPS data
This year, physicians can avoid a payment penalty in the Medicare Quality Payment Program by simply submitting a minimal amount of data. But that small amount of data could cause a bigger problem in 2019. In the first year of the program, under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), physicians can ease their way into the program requirements. Under MACRA’s Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), physicians can submit as little as one quality measure improvement activity for any time period in 2017 and avoid a financial penalty. The more data they submit, the more potential to earn a payment incentive. Continue reading…
Read with the experts: Molecular brain imaging of dementia
On Monday June 12, 2017, at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Annual Meeting, Brain Imaging Council will sponsor a CE Session entitled Molecular Brain Imaging of Dementia. Upon completion, participants will be able to: 1. Examine brain PET and SPECT findings typically seen in Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and other types of dementia. 2. Use different brain imaging modalities for dementia workup. 3. Describe new imaging methods. Continue reading…
PET radiotracer design for monitoring targeted immunotherapy
In an article published in the April issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, researchers at Stanford University in California provide a template for assessing new positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracers that can accurately identify molecules in cancer cells that prevent the immune system from attacking the cancer. A drug that blocks a cancer’s inhibitory checkpoint molecules is called an immune checkpoint inhibitor and this form of immunotherapy has emerged as a promising cancer treatment approach. However, the lack of imaging tools to assess immune checkpoint expression has been a major barrier to predicting and monitoring response to a clinical checkpoint blockade. Continue reading…
Recommendations on the echocardiographic assessment of aortic valve stenosis
Since detailed recommendations for the echocardiographic assessment of valve stenosis were published in 2009, numerous new studies on aortic stenosis have been published with particular new insights. This document focuses in particular on the optimization of left ventricular outflow tract assessment, low flow, low gradient aortic stenosis with preserved ejection fraction, a new classification of aortic stenosis by gradient, flow and ejection fraction, and a grading algorithm for an integrated and stepwise approach of aortic stenosis assessment in clinical practice. Continue reading…
Top hospital CEO concerns: Outpatient care access, innovative ways to cut costs
Hospital executives are looking for innovative ways to control costs at the same time that they grow service lines to remain competitive in a consumer-driven world. A new survey from The Advisory Board indicates that the top concerns of hospital and health system C-suite executives are to improve patients’ access to care in ambulatory or outpatient settings and also find innovative ways to reduce expenses. The survey, conducted between December 2016 and January 2017, asked 180 executives about their level of concern about 26 topics, ranging from preparing for the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) to non-merger partnership and affiliation models. Their top five concerns were: Continue reading…
New guidelines establish bone scan appropriate use criteria for prostate, breast cancer
New guidelines are out for appropriate use of bone scintigraphy, scans for bone metastases. On April 6, the Society of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) published appropriate use criteria for implementation with patients who have breast or prostate cancer. The guidelines are designed to help referring physicians and other ordering professionals abide by the requirements set forth in the 2014 Protecting Access to Medicine Act (PAMA). According to the guidelines bone scintigraphy is appropriate for prostate cancer. Continue reading…
