Sources of Revenue Loss and Recovery in Radiology Practices During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic.

Rationale And Objectives: This study seeks to quantify the financial impact of COVID-19 on radiology departments, and to describe the structure of both volume and revenue recovery.

Materials And Methods: Radiology studies from a large academic health system were retrospectively studied from the first 33 weeks of 2020. Volume and work relative value unit (wRVU) data were aggregated on a weekly basis for three periods: Presurge (weeks 1-9), surge (10-19), and recovery (20-33), and analyzed compared to the pre-COVID baseline stratified by modality, specialty, patient service location, and facility type. Mean and median wRVU per study were used as a surrogate for case complexity.

Results: During the pandemic surge, case volumes fell 57%, while wRVUs fell by 69% relative to the pre-COVID-19 baseline. Mean wRVU per study was 1.13 in the presurge period, 1.03 during the surge, and 1.19 in the recovery. Categories with the greatest mean complexity declines were radiography (-14.7%), cardiothoracic imaging (-16.2%), and community hospitals overall (-15.9%). Breast imaging (+6.5%), interventional (+5.5%), and outpatient (+12.1%) complexity increased. During the recovery, significant increases in complexity were seen in cardiothoracic (0.46 to 0.49), abdominal (1.80 to 1.91), and neuroradiology (2.46 to 2.56) at stand-alone outpatient centers with similar changes at community hospitals. At academic hospitals, only breast imaging complexity remained elevated (1.32 from 1.17) during the recovery.

Conclusion: Reliance on volume alone underestimates the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as there was a disproportionate loss in high-RVU studies. However, increased complexity of outpatient cases has stabilized overall losses during the recovery.