William T. Thorwarth

RADPEER scoring white paper.

The ACRs RADPEER program began in 2002; the electronic version, e-RADPEER, was offered in 2005. To date, more than 10,000 radiologists and more than 800 groups are participating in the program. Since the inception of RADPEER, there have been continuing discussions regarding a number of issues, including the scoring system, the subspecialty-specific subcategorization of data collected for each imaging modality, and the validation of interfacility scoring consistency. This white paper reviews the task force discussions, the literature review, and the new recommended scoring process and lexicon for RADPEER.

From concept to CPT code to compensation: how the payment system works.

All radiologists and radiation oncologists provide medical services to patients every day with the full anticipation that these services will be appropriately reimbursed. Yet most take this process for granted. Few have even a rudimentary idea how the system works by which a coding mechanism and reimbursement schedule are developed and maintained for the vast array of services they provide. Clearly, this is not good business. You need not stay in the dark any longer! This article describes (1) the fundamental structure of reimbursement for radiology and radiation oncology services; (2) the multiple steps required as a new procedure advances from a research concept to the assignment of a code in the American Medical Associations Current Procedural Terminology; (3) the process by which the new procedure and code are assigned a reimbursement value in the Medicare Fee Schedule, which acts as the base for over 75% of current medical reimbursement; and (4) the maintenance of this system for existing procedures.

R-SCAN: Why We Should Care!

INTRODUCTION The Radiology Support, Communication, and Alignment Network (R-SCAN) [1] is a 4-year effort of the ACR to empower 24,000 clinicians (4,000 radiologists and 20,000 referring clinicians) to advance stewardship in imaging care. As part of the CMS Innovation Center’s Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative [2], R-SCAN gives radiologists direct experience to transition to value-based care and to improve imaging utilization. A 2012 consensus report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM, now known as the National Academy of Medicine) indicates that an estimated

Improving diagnosis in health care: perspectives from the American College of Radiology

210 billion is spent annually on unnecessary medical services. IOM estimated that

The Impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on Radiology: Beyond Reimbursement

8 billion is spent annually on repeat testing [3]. The core component of R-SCAN is a collaborative clinical improvement activity that brings radiologists and referring clinicians together to improve imaging appropriateness and streamline image ordering in a sustainable fashion by teaching and implementing imaging-focused Choosing Wisely recommendations [4]. The selected Choosing Wisely campaign topics are endorsed by multiple medical societies, including the ACR, and are aligned with the ACR Appropriateness Criteria ; they pertain to both emergency and elective outpatient imaging, and apply across the different subspecialties of radiology. R-SCAN is actively collaborating with various professional groups, including the

The crisis in academic radiology: will we help ourselves?

Abstract In September of 2014, the American College of Radiology joined a number of other organizations in sponsoring the 2015 National Academy of Medicine report, Improving Diagnosis In Health Care. Our presentation to the Academy emphasized that although diagnostic errors in imaging are commonly considered to result only from failures in disease detection or misinterpretation of a perceived abnormality, most errors in diagnosis result from failures in information gathering, aggregation, dissemination and ultimately integration of that information into our patients’ clinical problems. Diagnostic errors can occur at any point on the continuum of imaging care from when imaging is first considered until results and recommendations are fully understood by our referring physicians and patients. We used the concept of the Imaging Value Chain and the ACR’s Imaging 3.0 initiative to illustrate how better information gathering and integration at each step in imaging care can mitigate many of the causes of diagnostic errors. Radiologists are in a unique position to be the aggregators, brokers and disseminators of information critical to making an informed diagnosis, and if radiologists were empowered to use our expertise and informatics tools to manage the entire imaging chain, diagnostic errors would be reduced and patient outcomes improved. Heath care teams should take advantage of radiologists’ ability to fully manage information related to medical imaging, and simultaneously, radiologists must be ready to meet these new challenges as health care evolves. The radiology community stands ready work with all stakeholders to design and implement solutions that minimize diagnostic errors.

Get Paid for What You Do: Dictation Patterns and Impact on Billing Accuracy

The 2014 ACR Forum focused on the noneconomic implications of the Affordable Care Act on the field of radiology, with specific attention to the importance of the patient experience, the role of radiology in public and population health, and radiologys role in the effort to lower overall health care costs. The recommendations generated from the Forum seek to inform ACR leadership on the best strategies to pursue to best prepare the radiology community for the rapidly evolving health care landscape.