In recent years the world’s supply of helium has raised heightened concerns, and some suppliers recently started to ration the nonrenewable element. 

Virtual formats can benefit quality improvement initiatives by enabling leaders across institutions to collaborate on multiple projects while still offering their local teams support. 

The group—which includes engineers, cardiologist, radiologists and other specialists—will attempt to perform a robotic-controlled left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) on a patient inside an MRI scanner.

In some instances, maximum negotiated prices are 3.8 times higher than the minimum negotiated prices at the same hospital for the same procedure. 

Older patients, racial/ethnic minorities, women and those on public insurance only (versus private) were observed to have lower OOP expenses. 

These moves are part of a broader plan to increase the supply of iodine raw material, eventually enabling the production of an additional 30 million doses of iodinated contrast media annually by the year 2025. 

“Current reimbursement contributes to inequity because locating new technology in facilities that serve patients with public insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, is not economically sustainable," authors of a new paper in Radiology suggested.

Stamatia Destounis, MD, FACR, a radiologist and managing partner at Elizabeth Wende Breast Care in Rochester, New York, and chair of the ACR Breast Commission, discusses post-COVID-19 economic issues facing breast imaging centers, including staffing problems from the "Great Resignation" and lower reimbursements.