"We have seen a rise in Cardiac PET and an increase in business," observes Donnie Ozenne, managing partner, Nuclear Imaging Services LLC., of Houston, Texas. Their customers are mainly outpatient cardiology offices, imaging centers and rural hospitals. Cardiac PET (with its higher reimbursement relative to other imaging studies) is a growing modality because of proposed cuts in traditional myocardial perfusion imaging. "Mobile services and leases of these systems are a great solution for groups that don't have the capital to invest in a fixed unit," Ozenne said.

"Demand for particular modalities is cyclical because technologies are up for renewal at different times-such as MR and CT, however, the demand for nuclear cameras remains fairly steady," Holzberg reported.


Finding Opportunities

As the health care reform debate comes to a head in Washington, it's clear that mobile services could be part of the solution to cutting health care costs.

"There is no doubt that mobile services have improved the delivery of health care...and saved many millions of dollars each year," Smith said. "Both the mobile service and the equipment supplier side of this industry have worked very hard since the first mobile CTs were introduced in 1976 to continually provide the medical care delivery industry with high-quality, dependable mobile units that save money and still provide services equal to fixed sites."

"We have not experienced any drop-off in business for any modalities," said Jeff Rogers, director of sales for Imaging Systems, Medical Imaging Resources, Inc., Ann Arbor, Mich. The company provides mobile MRI, CT, Cath/Angio, Nuclear Medicine, and PET/CT systems. "Our business has increased because payment for mobile rentals is considered an operating expense versus a capital expense. Most hospitals have very limited capital budgets at this time due to the national economic conditions."




"People rent because they have to catch up with backlog or are buying a new scanner and want to bring something in temporarily while they refit their rooms and take delivery on the new equipment," said George Webb, MobileScan Imaging, Kildeer, IL. Webb's company focuses on high-end CT. "It's cost effective to rent because providers are running high volumes of patients. When you get down to it, diagnostics are necessary. People have to have it in some form and you have to be able to provide it at a reasonable price and deliver a quality product."

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