Radiology

A Community at Risk 

On May 9, 2023, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued draft recommendations that average-risk women get screened for breast cancer every two years beginning at age 40.   

While this is a step in the right direction, I have never wavered from the science that proved the life-saving benefits of annual screenings commencing at the age of 40. Here’s why. 

Originally published by Theresa A. Cavins, MD, FACS on Radiology Business

As the chief of surgery specializing in breast care, I’ve seen firsthand the negative impact the national physician shortage can have on women’s health – especially in underserved communities. At my community hospital, it’s hard for us to bring in a new doctor, a new nurse, anyone at all. There is just such a shortage of talent right now.

Radiologists, especially breast imaging fellows, are perhaps the single hardest position to fill in this challenging environment. If you have to rely on your own hospital’s ability to hire a new radiologist, you could be waiting for a long time – potentially putting women’s health at risk.

The pandemic delayed breast care for many women. We all know, however, that you can’t put cancer on hold. Combine that with the intensifying shortage of radiologists in this country and we’re seeing more and more patients who desperately need care.

Fortunately, we can provide screening mammograms and same-day diagnostic results remotely to many of those patients who lack access locally – for whatever reason. Perhaps the drive is too far, or their local provider doesn’t have a breast imaging specialist.

vRad first launched its remote diagnostic mammography program back in 2016, connecting patients and technologists with fellowship-trained, board-certified radiologists via live video consultation. Some providers and their patients were tentative at first – this was, after all, years before telehealth popularity skyrocketed during the pandemic – but the times, they are a changin’. Our telemammography volume is up 22% for each of the past three years. We’ll read 130,000 studies this year alone which means more women are accessing the specialized care they need.  

In the face of increasingly sophisticated and more frequent cyberattacks that threaten the sensitive data of all healthcare providers, vRad is continuously advancing our systems to predict, prevent, and respond to these threats. The latest milestone in our commitment to safeguard patient information and other sensitive data is our achievement of SOC 2 Type II compliance.

One of the cornerstones of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 was the development of an appropriate use criteria (AUC) program that requires doctors to consult a qualified clinical decision support mechanism (qCDSM) when ordering advanced imaging services for Medicare patients. As many in the revenue cycle management (RCM) world already know, CMS was scheduled to start penalizing providers who don’t participate in the AUC program on Jan. 1, 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, led to such actions being delayed until 2023 at the earliest.

Originally published by Michael Walter on Radiology Business

Medical malpractice claims are a significant source of anxiety for all radiologists. Unfortunately, decisions made in the heat of the moment, with the absolute best intentions, can still land a specialist in court.

In my role as chief medical officer for vRad, I’m intimately involved with our radiology malpractice claims and have observed commonalities among them. To quantify these observations, I recently analyzed all 220 claims made against vRad radiologists between June 2017 and October 2020—applying a detailed classification taxonomy including the alleged type of miss, study type, if the standard of care was met, if communication failures contributed, settlement, and so on.

What emerged from that data was a clear set of guidelines to help radiologists avoid the costliest and most likely cases to go to trial.

I am extremely pleased to announce that beginning in 2022, vRad radiologists will see a compensation increase of up to 25%.

This will be the largest pay hike in the history of our practice and it will benefit all vRad radiologists. As part of a long-term reinvestment strategy in our radiologists, it is the fourth increase since 2019 and it reflects our values in compensating radiologists for the time, effort, and expertise required to advance vRad as a premier practice.