Word: ct
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...many physicians losing income, a diagnostic center is an attractive income generator. CT angiography, MRI, ultrasound and electrodiagnostics all pay comparably more and incur far less liability than giving medicines, doing procedures or performing most surgeries. The pure diagnostician renders the information from his fancy test, takes the money and walks away--a great business model. Electromyograms to "diagnose" carpal tunnel syndrome, for one, usually pay more than the surgery to correct...
Hospital executives are responding to the assault of specialists by building and aggressively marketing profitable "service lines," like cancer, heart and brain centers. They're snapping up $1.4 million computed tomography (CT) scanners, which produce palpably detailed, 3-D pictures of bones and organs, and $2.2 million "high field" MRI machines that can watch the brain at work. The inflationary dynamic spawned by this expansion of health-care capacity exposes flaws in the payment system that sustains U.S. health care. Those flaws partly explain why Americans spend $2 trillion, or 16% of their GDP, for medical care, an outlay that...
Such competition is fueling the arms race. Via Christi is counterattacking with a new neuromedicine service line. The weapons: a 64-slice CT scanner; and a brand-new $3.5 million CyberKnife, an X-ray gun that zaps tumors with pinpoint precision, housed in its own $1.5 million building. It has set up a stroke-treatment center and brain-aneurysm lab. "This is one of the areas that we've beefed up since all the specialty stuff happened," says Larry Schumacher, CEO of Via Christi's Wichita operations. "We're trying very hard to protect that." Wesley, for its part...
Nowhere is this more apparent than in diagnostic imaging. Last year Americans spent more than $100 billion on outpatient scans. Medicare's imaging costs have been growing 16% a year, much faster than the 9.6% rise for all physician services. The most lucrative--MRI and CT--climbed 25% last year. A third of the testing, says Donahue of National Imaging, is inappropriate; doctors order unnecessary scans, or two when one would suffice. "This is one of the most unsavory and concerning areas of how imaging is delivered," he says. "It's when imaging studies are not based upon clinical needs...
...limited resources or opportunities, thus preserving the power for those who have benefited in the past. On the other hand, today and in recent past, those who are privileged can oppose policies such as affirmative action in the name of reverse discrimination. So, ultimately, who wins? ANNA WOOD Fairfield, CT December 3, 2006 The writer is an adjunct professor at Fairfield and Quinnipiac Universities...