Alternative Revenue Streams for Outpatient Imaging Centers
As reimbursement rates for imaging centers continue to tumble due to new healthcare reform, now is the time to begin exploring new opportunities for increasing overall revenue at your facility. In addition to offering new imaging services, there are a few other alternatives that some of the most successful imaging centers are using to offset these reimbursement cuts and substantially grow their practices. We’ll explain how these work, so you can decide if such alternatives are suitable for your practice and your goals.
Multimodal Imaging
Combining anatomical and molecular imaging, such as CT and PET, multimodal imaging is the present and future of imaging as we know it. Multimodal imaging produces a more complete, hi-res image than the imagery of yesterday, helping MD’s and specialists make a more accurate diagnosis and better recognize diseases in premature stages than ever before.
Multimodal imaging can help you decrease your overhead costs by using one instrument for complete imaging, rather than multiple instruments. Additionally, providing more efficient and complete images will help you cultivate your healthcare network and increase your volume of MD referrals. As a result, multimodal imaging will help you to better position yourself as the go-to imaging center in your region. Multimodal technology is still somewhat in its infancy, but you should look into incorporating some type of PET-CT, PET-MRI, and SPECT-CT at your facility.
Work with a contract research organization (CRO)
Rather than wait for results from clinical trial studies, many pharmaceutical companies today are looking to CRO’s for imaging as a means of providing faster results. However, the biggest CRO’s today, including the likes of WorldCare Clinical and ACR Image Metrix are looking for radiologists who are well trained in subspecialties, whether that specialty be MRI, CT, or multimodality. For radiologists like you, partnering with CRO’s not only helps bring in more revenue to your facility, but it also helps put your name on the map and further expand your healthcare network. Though the compensation varies, many CRO’s are willing to pay radiologists up to $3,000/day.
Mobile radiology
Though mobile radiology entails another large capital investment, revenue from mobile imaging can make a lucrative supplement to your existing revenue streams. Instead of relying solely on MD referrals, you can considerably expand your patient base by providing services to long-term care facilities, correctional institutions, homes, and primary care facilities.
Work with a medical lien finance company
By aligning your interests with a medical lien finance company, you can begin to develop a steady cash flow and reduce the risk of nonpayment from underinsured patients. Reimbursement cuts and waiting for personal injury cases to settle in court can stifle growth at your imaging center, but the revenue from selling your receivables can help you finance new equipment or mobile services.
Unfortunately, not all medical lien finance companies are the same, so you’ll want to work with a company that offers other benefits in addition to purchasing receivables, such as OMNI Healthcare. As an affiliate of Global Financial, one of the nation’s leading financiers for attorneys, OMNI Healthcare can connect you with their extensive nationwide network of healthcare providers and patients, so that you can expand your client base and increase your cash flow considerably.
Unlike many other medical lien finance companies, OMNI Healthcare is well backed and has the resources to offer you top dollar for your receivables, as well as the flexibility to wait for a claim to settle. If a case falls through in court, OMNI Healthcare will assume the loss- no strings attached. In less than a week, you can begin increasing your revenue and receive the cash you need to purchase new equipment and expand your services.