Facility Management

Acuson and its founder/CEO Samuel H. Maslak are hitting the roadthis month to tout technology in a manner reminiscent of the ultrasoundvendor's initial launch of its high-end 128 scanner a decade ago.Similarities between 1983 and 1993 abound, not only in

A year after the General Accounting Office lambasted MRI centersfor overcharging Medicare for imaging scans, a new study commissionedby the Quality Imaging Association contradicts the GAO findings. In its 1992 report, the GAO charged that centers were

You know a business situation is dim when the bright side is thata good chunk of your competition may close shop before you do.That about sums up the state of the outpatient imaging servicesmarket. And wither goes imaging services, so go the

The General Accounting Office released a study last month disclosingthat Florida physicians with imaging center investment interestsordered far more medical imaging tests than doctors who did notself-refer. The GAO's findings have already provided

Demand for new MRI systems continues in the private-practice/outpatient-centermarket, although buyers faced with declining reimbursement arepressing for lower equipment prices. Otsuka Electronics will shipseven of its OE 1.5 SI MRI systems this spring,

Opponents of a form of imaging center networking known as scanbrokering are waging a battle against the practice in California.A bill that would ban scan brokering is undergoing hearings inthe state Legislature. Assembly bill 1898 was sponsored by the

Diagnostic Health has switched tracks in its imaging-center acquisitiondrive but is still rolling towards the goal of building a 30-centerchain over the next two to three years. With stock markets spookedby the uncertainty of impending health-care

Play the flip side of the health-care, cost-containment bluesand you will hear some well-placed companies singing market rhapsodies.Wall Street whistled to the tune of $6 million in support of niche-MRIdeveloper Magna-Lab last month, despite the

Imaging center chains must control what they pay for center acquisitionsif they hope to compete in a managed-care-driven U.S. health-caresystem. Many center partnerships continue to request prices thatare too high, considering how cost-driven the imaging

In what could be a harbinger of the future of health-care reform,a Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan in New York has begun requiringprecertification for MRI scans. Precertification is not new to managed care plans such as healthmaintenance organizations. But

The MR Cooperative hopes strength in numbers will help its membersweather tough times in store for the imaging center industry.The center association is negotiating group discounts on everythingfrom contrast agents to equipment upgrades by grouping its

Siemens initiated a restructuring of its U.S. medical operationslast week that will eventually centralize all corporate unitsunder Siemens Medical Systems in Iselin, NJ. The German vendorpreviously had U.S.-based medical businesses with worldwide

Funds for imaging center acquisitions have tightened as investorspull back and scope out the potentially radical changes in U.S.health-care delivery due for disclosure by the Clinton administrationin May. With imaging center operating profits under

Bristol-Myers Squibb hopes the secret to unlocking the potentiallyhuge ultrasound contrast market lies in a derivative of a materialas rare as the common household plant. This month the companyrevealed the details of its licensing and manufacturing

Manufacturers and users of low-field MRI scanners are breathinga little easier in California. Members of a physicians councilcharged with reforming the state's workers' compensation insurancesystem have moved a step closer to shelving a controversial

Combine the world's largest fleet of mobile MRI vans with a growingfixed-site imaging center business, stir in more than a pinchof U.S. health-care restructuring and leaven with cheap debt.Could this be a blue-ribbon recipe for approaching

Manufacturers and users of low-field MRI scanners will probablydodge a bullet this month that could have been fatal for low-fieldreimbursement in California's workers' compensation system. Membersof a medical council participating in reform of the system

Proponents of health-care reform wasted little time resurrectingfederal legislation that would grant antitrust waivers to hospitalsplanning medical equipment-sharing arrangements. Similar legislationintroduced in the last session of Congress expired when

Sterling Winthrop made it three this month, as its Omniscan agent became the third MRI contrast product to receive U.S. Food and Drug Administration marketing approval. The nonionic gadolinium agent will be sold in this market by Sanofi Winthrop, a joint

Imaging center firm Medical Resources (MRI) has paid down itsdebt from a leveraged buyout two years ago, raised $6 millionin new capital through an initial public stock offering and isready to start buying centers, according to chairman Ernest J.DeSalvo.

ATL found itself swimming strongly against an ebbing tide in theultrasound market this quarter. The Bothell, WA-based dedicatedultrasound vendor reported third-quarter increases in revenueand income while the financial results of competitors

Clinical development of positron emission tomography could behampered by an ongoing shortage of oxygen-18, the raw materialfor a widely used PET tracer. The shortage is forcing PET researchersto ration isotope supplies and cut back on studies just as

Shifting alliances in intravascular ultrasound compose a dancechoreographed by companies with an eye on a market that just mightbe something--someday. Catheter firm Boston Scientific partedwith ultrasound vendor Diasonics in July to jump on the back

Aetna Health Plans has joined the growing list of private insurancecompanies that have authorized reimbursement of positron emissiontomography scans. Aetna began covering PET scans early this year after the company'stechnology review board last winter

An engine is driving the U.S. imaging center industry slowly butsurely toward consolidation of independents into regional andnationwide chains. While the octane in the fuel that feeds thisengine is regulatory restriction of referring physician

California's state legislature resolved its budget stalemate lastmonth, but not before cutting 9.5% in Medi-Cal payments to radiologists,anesthesiologists and surgeons. The last-minute addition to thestate's budget bill is expected to save about $7

Niche MR may be an emerging market, but it is not a totally newfocus of corporate attention. Metriflow Medical Systems of Milwaukeeobtained Food and Drug Administration approval of its AFM-100blood flow scanner five years ago. The firm is just now

Rx Medical Services will leverage its experience in clinical laboratoriesinto a position in medical imaging. The company, based in NewportBeach, CA, last month made the first of what it hopes will bemany imaging center acquisitions with the purchase of

Seven years of turmoil in the picture archiving and communicationsystems market has led to greater emphasis on productivity andcost-effective equipment. But radiology departments often assumethat adding new technology in PACS will automatically

Cytocare squelched a class action suit in May that had been promptedby the firm's declining fortunes in the lithotripsy market anda corresponding drop in stock price. A Santa Ana, CA, federaldistrict judge granted the firm's summary motion to dismiss