Applied Radiology

By Robert “Bob” Cooke

It’s a fairly well known fact that the majority of Radiologists qualify as Eligible Professionals (EP) under the Meaningful Use guidelines, and thus are eligible for up to $39,000 in incentives if they get started with meaningful use this year. The incentive is the proverbial penny lying on the sidewalk.

In a recent RSNA/KLAS survey, 62% of the Radiology practices surveyed were either “considering” or “didn’t know” if they were planning to enroll and participate in the CMS EHR incentive Programs. In the same survey, more than 75% weren’t knowledgeable about the program.

Now, those that do know about Meaningful Use, will tell you that the path to receiving this incentive feels complicated, and that adopting and implementing the measures spelled out in the Stage 1 incentives won't do much to improve the delivery of Radiology services. But don’t forget that Stage 2 is coming, and, will likely have more relevance to Radiology, especially given the RSNA 2012 theme of “Patients First.”

From the statistics, it would seem that Radiology is deciding whether to pick up the penny. What if they don’t? How does a 2% penalty on physician payments from CMS sound if you don’t comply?

Here’s a fun fact, most, if not all of the painful data entry can be excluded by Radiology if the Radiologist does not “see” the patient. Here’s another thought to contemplate, there is a tremendous amount of advocacy and lobbying required to keep the regulatory bodies informed about the value of imaging ­— how effective will those efforts be if the Radiology community is largely ignoring the relatively simple obligations being placed on them by CMS?

So, what’s the deal? Is Radiology just ignoring the penny because they don’t know how to pick it up? If that’s the case, there are plenty of people that do, and it might just be time to go looking for them.

The rest of the rhyme: "Find a penny, leave it be and bad luck will come to thee."