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Asheville Radiology Associates outsources billing to Zotec Partners

Zotec Partners, an industry leading provider of specialized medical billing and practice management services for the hospital-based specialty market, announces today that it is taking over billing operations for North Carolina-based Asheville Radiology Associates.

9 Apr 2012

State roundup: Health costs cloud forecast for state budgets; Minnesota to use HMO refund on personal care

U.S. state and local governments' fiscal situations have improved recently but will still deteriorate through 2060, the Government Accountability Office said on Thursday. ... The outlook remains gloomy for the future, with healthcare costs, both for public employees and for the Medicaid insurance program for the poor, swelling and weighing on budgets, GAO said.

7 Apr 2012

AIUM announces 2012 EER grant recipients

The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) announced the recipients of its 2012 Endowment for Education and Research (EER) grants at the 2012 AIUM Annual Convention in Phoenix, Arizona.

6 Apr 2012

Researchers develop 'phantoms' to make medical imaging safer for obese patients

Most medical imaging equipment is not designed with overweight and obese patients in mind. As a result, these individuals can be exposed to higher levels of radiation during routine X-ray and CT scans.

6 Apr 2012

Viewpoints: Support for drug benefit merger; Health reform comes too slowly for some patients; Pinpointing Romney's views on mandate

It seems counterintuitive, but the Federal Trade Commission has just decided that a $29 billion merger of two of the three largest companies that manage pharmaceutical benefits for employers and health plans -; Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions -; would not substantially lessen competition. That judgment deserves credence because of the thoroughness of the F.T.C.'s eight-month inquiry and the willingness of the agency to oppose other mergers when the evidence warrants.

6 Apr 2012

Non-invasive and longitudinal assessment of fat in animal disease models

Researchers are increasingly aware that fat in some parts of the body is more harmful than fat in other places. To help determine how obesity works, scientists turn to animal models and now, they are able to visualize how much fat their lab rats are carrying and where they are storing it.

5 Apr 2012

HSP27 protein can indicate lung damage during early stages of COPD

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a widespread disease. In Austria alone, there are between 500,000 and 600,000 sufferers; around ninety per cent of cases are the result of smoking. Now, under the leadership of Hendrik Jan Ankersmit, a research team from the University Department of Surgery at MedUni Vienna and the Christian Doppler Laboratory for the Diagnosis and Regeneration of Heart and Thorax Diseases has discovered a protein marker in the blood that can already indicate lung damage during the early stages of COPD, before a decrease in lung volume is detected by a pulmonary function test.

5 Apr 2012

ACR finds list of five medical imaging exams

As part of its ongoing efforts to ensure safe, effective and appropriate use of medical imaging, the American College of Radiology (ACR) identified a list of five imaging exams whose necessity should be discussed before being ordered.

5 Apr 2012

Physician groups identify unnecessary procedures

The list of 45 tests and procedures was pulled together by nine medical speciality groups to help reduce spending and improve patients' health.

5 Apr 2012

Feinstein scientists to present three GBM abstracts at AACR annual meeting

Scientists from the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research will present three abstracts about Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and deadly adult brain cancer, at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting to be held from Saturday through Wednesday (March 31- April 4) in Chicago, IL.

5 Apr 2012

More than 4 in 10 people at high risk for hereditary pancreatic cancer have small lesions

A team of scientists led by Johns Hopkins researchers have found that more than four in 10 people considered at high risk for hereditary pancreatic cancer have small pancreatic lesions long before they have any symptoms of the deadly disease.

5 Apr 2012

AAN responds to IOM report, pledges to improve quality of life for epilepsy patients

The American Academy of Neurology (AAN), the world's largest organization of neurologists, is pledging to work with the entire epilepsy community to improve the quality of life for epilepsy patients in response to recent recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in its report Epilepsy Across the Spectrum - Promoting Health and Understanding.

4 Apr 2012

Addition of ultrasound and MRI to annual mammography effectively detects incident breast cancers

The addition of a screening ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to annual mammography in women with an increased risk of breast cancer and dense breast tissue resulted in a higher rate of detection of incident breast cancers, according to a study in the April 4 issue of JAMA.

4 Apr 2012

Nine physician organizations identify specific tests or procedures that may be unnecessary

Nine leading physician specialty societies have identified specific tests or procedures that they say are commonly used but not always necessary in their respective fields. Patient advocates are calling the move a significant step toward improving the quality and safety of health care.

4 Apr 2012

Viewpoints: Shouldering the health costs of the 'irresponsible'; Learning from the parallels between Obamacare and the 'war on terror'

The central idea of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -; the formal name of the Obamacare law -; emphasized in the hearings is to spread the cost of health care to ever-larger pools of Americans. In particular, to those who pay low health insurance premiums, the young who choose to have no insurance and the healthy.

4 Apr 2012

Secondary cancer risk from MDCT scans is low among older adults

The secondary cancer risk from multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) scans is low among older adults, according to a study from Stanford University in the April issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology. MDCT is a high-speed imaging technique that is commonly used to diagnose a variety of diseases and conditions.

3 Apr 2012

Viewpoints: 'Outrageously high fee' for emergency services; Mysterious rise in autism cases

The calculus for medical charges in general is beyond comprehension, with outrageously high fees used as a starting point in a bizarre game of bargaining. Glenn Melnick, who teaches hospital finance at USC, told me it's as crazy as if he asked to buy the TV in my living room, and I gave him a price of $1 million to start the conversation.

3 Apr 2012

Views on the Supreme Court review: No matter what the decision, reform will go on; The case threatens the court's legacy

Listening to the lawyers talking nonstop last week about health care gave me a headache, so I decided to consult one of the nation's top doctors. He offered a real-world diagnosis of what's happening in health care -; and a reminder of how much it's changing, regardless of what the Supreme Court decides about Obamacare. My medical guru is Delos "Toby" Cosgrove, chief executive of Cleveland Clinic, a $6 billion network that's one of the biggest and best providers in the country.

3 Apr 2012

Health reform means ER use jumps in Colo.; Calif. insurance premiums rise; Ore. waits to see who wants in on coordinated care

Even people who just got health insurance use the emergency departments to access their care, according to a new study by University of Colorado School of Medicine researchers. It's not just people who lost insurance or people living long without it, the researchers note -- any change in health insurance status, whether positive or negative, tends to send people to the ER because they don't know where else to go.

3 Apr 2012

SDMI installs Toshiba's Vantage Titan 3T in the U.S.

Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging Center (SDMI) in Las Vegas needed an MR system to perform a range of patient exams at a high-volume imaging center. To solve this issue, it recently installed the first Vantage Titan 3T in the U.S. from Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc.

3 Apr 2012

CT News and Research

Asheville Radiology Associates outsources billing to Zotec Partners

State roundup: Health costs cloud forecast for state budgets; Minnesota to use HMO refund on personal care

AIUM announces 2012 EER grant recipients

Researchers develop 'phantoms' to make medical imaging safer for obese patients

Viewpoints: Support for drug benefit merger; Health reform comes too slowly for some patients; Pinpointing Romney's views on mandate

Non-invasive and longitudinal assessment of fat in animal disease models

HSP27 protein can indicate lung damage during early stages of COPD

ACR finds list of five medical imaging exams

Physician groups identify unnecessary procedures

Feinstein scientists to present three GBM abstracts at AACR annual meeting

More than 4 in 10 people at high risk for hereditary pancreatic cancer have small lesions

AAN responds to IOM report, pledges to improve quality of life for epilepsy patients

Addition of ultrasound and MRI to annual mammography effectively detects incident breast cancers

Nine physician organizations identify specific tests or procedures that may be unnecessary

Viewpoints: Shouldering the health costs of the 'irresponsible'; Learning from the parallels between Obamacare and the 'war on terror'

Secondary cancer risk from MDCT scans is low among older adults

Viewpoints: 'Outrageously high fee' for emergency services; Mysterious rise in autism cases

Views on the Supreme Court review: No matter what the decision, reform will go on; The case threatens the court's legacy

Health reform means ER use jumps in Colo.; Calif. insurance premiums rise; Ore. waits to see who wants in on coordinated care

SDMI installs Toshiba's Vantage Titan 3T in the U.S.

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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