by
Sean Ruck, Contributing Editor | July 15, 2015
From the July 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
HCBN: What are the biggest challenges facing AHRA members today?
DF: Decline in reimbursement is the big one. Imaging, as far back as I can recall, has been a fee-for-service, premiere profitable service line. Today, certain areas of imaging have become true cost centers. Some are still profitable, but as regulatory impact is felt more, it creates a need to justify what we’re doing in our department as it relates to the hospital’s bottom line. The fee-for-service is going away, but the way it has worked, you can look at it as if you’ve got a bucket and every time someone does something, you get money put into that bucket. How it’s moving now though, you get a bucket of money, based on your performance throughout the year, that will impact how much money you get to keep that’s in the bucket.
HCBN: How do you think the medical imaging field will have changed 10 years from now?
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DF: I think that the technology we are using right now will work within better alignment with some of the ancillary support areas like respiratory and laboratory, because they provide treatment and diagnostic. Pathology slides are not dissimilar from imaging work. It’s amazing about so much of the work is continuing to blur. I don’t, however, predict the loss of any imaging modalities.
I think prevention medicine will have a big impact. Be mindful, we are predisposed genetically for heart disease and stroke, even some of the cancers. It goes back to nanotech to be able to identify whether you have the gene that causes that process to occur. Then you have environmental care, where if we’re not exercising and adhering to a healthy diet, clearly you invite the opportunity for disease. And then of course, there will always be trauma. But we’re looking to change and refine behavior habits, to preclude trauma and limit environmental impact. We have a role to play as management and leadership in the industry.
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