From the September 2011 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


Due to the transforming health care system, Hitachi’s Etheridge says customers have to be more efficient and will need a scanner that can be used across the “broadest range” of patients. “I think work flow becomes exceedingly important,” he says. “If your per-head reimbursement’s going down, you’re going to be looking for more heads and you’re going to be looking for more scans to do.”

According to Philips’ Mitchell, the growing need to scan more patients each day has caused OEMs to strive towards creating more productive systems that address issues such as patient throughput, scanner efficiencies and ease of use.



Another health care-related challenge facing the MR sector is the new Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act, which will require non-hospital imaging facilities to become accredited by the beginning of 2012 in order to remain eligible to receive Medicare reimbursement for MRI, CT, PET and nuclear medicine tests. The two primary accrediting bodies are the American College of Radiology and the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Magnetic Resonance Laboratories.

The MRI accreditation process, which is conducted primarily via mail, evaluates each facility’s quality control, medical staff, equipment performance, clinical image quality and safety standards. After earning accreditation, an imaging site is awarded a three-year certification, during which time it will receive an unannounced visit from the CMS or accrediting body. If a facility does not pass the accreditation process, it is permitted to appeal the results or reapply.

The sky’s the limit
MRG predicts the total value of the entire MRI market will grow between 1.7 and 2 percent over the next half decade. “I think that most of the growth is going to be focused toward the 3 Tesla systems,” Silva says. He believes 3T MRIs could go from being approximately 26 percent of the MRI market to 30 percent in 2015, largely driven by the need for higher throughput. “That’s going to be even more important in about 2013, 2014, when the health care reform impact takes place, when a large number of previously uninsured Americans are going to finally have insurance, and that should provide some boosts in terms of procedural volumes in the U.S.”

September 2011 Magazine

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