Is there an ameripath equivalent in radiology

[raider]

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Does anyone know of something like ameripath in radiology (driving down salaries by taking away both TC and a good part of PC).
If not, what is the reason (more cost of equipment, good supply-demand ratio of radiologists preventing such a setup etc).

 

[KCShaw]

I've heard of NightHawk, which seems to have the capacity for doing this, but I don't know of it actually affecting salaries. I did stumble around briefly and found some internet chatter of radiologists discussing commoditization of their specialty, including an article (http://radiology.rsna.org/content/248/2/337.full). The big difference to me is that these big off-site radiology services are generally only "reading" -- the images/technical components are still produced on-site where the CT scanners, MRI, and x-ray machines are located. There are some radiology offices which do it all, but require the patient to actually travel there for imaging, so it's really suitable only for local outpatient services -- unlike Ameripath and similar which might have 1 or 2 main labs covering an entire state and running transport all the time to & from small collection spots, etc.

How exactly they handle billing & reimbursement, though, I don't know.

 

[Entgegen]

More or less. KC mentioned Nighthawk, but there's also Radisphere and one or two others that I'm blanking on. They will hire on rads for a reduced salary compared to what they may make in a standard PP group.

There are even reports that since rads have been farming out their night reads to these companies, they've become more powerful and predatory and have swooped in, undercut the prior rad group and taken their hospital contract.

In addition, there're also self-referral issues with ortho groups and neuro groups buying their own MRIs in order to collect the TC. Not sure if those guys have started demanding a share of the PC as well though.

All this info has been from AuntMinnie.com, the major radiology forum. You do need to sign up and become a member to read the forums though (but it's free).

 

[LADoc00]

short answer: yep.