Temporal and Patient Variations Potentially Impacting New Payment Models.

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of an array of nongeographic patient and within-year temporal factors on variation in Medicare imaging utilization.

Methods: Using the CMS Chronic Conditions Data Warehouse, we identified imaging events nationally per 1,000 Medicare beneficiaries from 2008 through 2014 on a quarterly basis. We also stratified imaging utilization by a variety of clinical and sociodemographic patient factors.

Report of the ACR's Economics Committee on Value-Based Payment Models.

A major outcome of the current health care reform process is the move away from unrestricted fee-for-service payment models toward those that are based on the delivery of better patient value and outcomes. The authors' purpose, therefore, is to critically evaluate and define those components of the overall imaging enterprise that deliver meaningful value to both patients and referrers and to determine how these components might be measured and quantified. These metrics might then be used to lobby providers and payers for sustainable payment solutions for radiologists and radiology services.

The ICD-10 system: a gift that keeps on taking.

The Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 was signed into law on April Fool's Day. Indeed, 2014 saw unprecedented enthusiasm for the possibility of a permanent solution to the sustainable growth rate formula. Congress failed to come together on methods to pay for that fix.

Modified stent-supported coil embolization for treatment of a splenic artery pseudoaneurysm.

A patient presented 2 weeks after distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy with increased bloody output from his surgical drain. Catheter angiography found an enlarging splenic artery stump pseudoaneurysm. During the procedure, there was concern that nontarget embolization may occur, given the short splenic artery remnant.