| Question 1: What activities generate revenue for the hospital at a practice that outsources the interpretation of its images? |
| Reference: | Technical versus profession fee basics. See https://www.radiologytoday.net/archive/rt1115p7.shtml accessed 4/26/2021
Radiology Billing and Coding: Professional and Technical Components
By G. John Verhovshek, MA, CPC
Radiology Today
Vol. 16 No. 11 P. 7 |
| Choice A: | Scanning and administering contrast |
| Choice B: | Scanning, administering contrast, and interpreting |
| Choice C: | Administering contrast and interpreting images |
| Choice D: | Interpreting images |
| Question 2: What does the report of AAPM TG151 recommend as a target and investigative threshold for overall rejected image rate at the acquisition level (i.e., (# rejected acquisitions)/(# total acquisitions) ) ? |
| Reference: | The report cites rejected image rates in digital departments (i.e., not using screen-film) ranging between 4-8%. The task group goes on to recommend 8% as a target, and 10% as a threshold for investigation and possible corrective action, but allows that these numbers could be adjusted to reflect variations in clinical practice. In pediatric imaging departments, the report recommends a target of 5% and an investigative threshold of 7%.
Jones, A. K., Heintz, P., Geiser, W., Goldman, L., Jerjian, K., Martin, M., Peck, D., Pfeiffer, D., Ranger, N., & Yorkston, J. (2015). Ongoing quality control in digital radiography: Report of AAPM Imaging Physics Committee Task Group 151. Medical Physics, 42(11), 6658–6670. https://doi.org/10.1118/1.4932623 |
| Choice A: | Target: 2%, Investigative threshold: 5% |
| Choice B: | Target: 5%, Threshold: 8% |
| Choice C: | Target: 8%, Threshold: 10% |
| Choice D: | Target: 12%, Threshold: 15% |
| Question 3: What is a typical number for overall rate of repeated helical acquisitions at the study level (i.e., (# studies containing repeated helicals)/(# total studies)) based on current literature reports? |
| Reference: | Rose et al. measured study-level helical repeat rates at 5 institutions and found overall rates less than 2%. Repeat rates for individual CT protocols, however, varied greatly. For example, a large patient CT pulmonary angiography protocol at one institution had a repeat rate of 11.2%
Rose, S., Viggiano, B., Bour, R., Bartels, C., Kanne, J. P., & Szczykutowicz, T. P. (2021). Applying a New CT Quality Metric in Radiology: How CT Pulmonary Angiography Repeat Rates Compare Across Institutions. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2021.02.014 |
| Choice A: | <2% |
| Choice B: | 3-5% |
| Choice C: | 6-9% |
| Choice D: | 9-12% |
| Question 4: Which of the following lists of scanner options would likely be considered most preferable for a site wishing to perform coronary CTA on a new CT scanner. |
| Reference: | Answer a is most likely geared towards a unit used primarily for interventional procedures. Answer c contains common options for a radiation therapy scanner. Answer d is incorrect because perfusion and extended field of view options are not necessary for coronary CTA.
Szczykutowicz, T. P. (2020). Chapter 17. “Buyer’s Guide of Optional Features in CT” The CT Handbook: Optimizing Protocols for Today’s Feature-Rich Scanners. Medical Physics Publishing. |
| Choice A: | Metal artifact reduction, gantry tilt, fluoroscopy, wide bore |
| Choice B: | Cardiac gating, metal artifact reduction, wide axial collimation |
| Choice C: | Respiratory gating, extended field of view, flat table |
| Choice D: | Cardiac gating, perfusion, extended field of view |
| Question 5: If you had to pick one thing true for all modalities to cut time on to increase revenue, what would it be? |
| Reference: | https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/radiol.2016160749
Rubin, G. D. (2017). Costing in radiology and health care: rationale, relativity, rudiments, and realities. Radiology, 282(2), 333-347. |
| Choice A: | Reduction of actual image acquisition time |
| Choice B: | Decreased exam schedule slot times |
| Choice C: | Reduction of the total number of images per study |
| Choice D: | Reduction of image transfer and networking time |
| Question 6: In the context of radiology, what does MIPS stand for? |
| Reference: | See for example https://www.jacr.org/article/S1546-1440(17)31421-7/fulltext
Rosenkrantz, A. B., Babb, J. S., Nicola, G. N., Silva III, E., Wang, W., & Duszak Jr, R. (2018). Double scan CT rates: An opportunity for facility-based radiologist measures in the Quality Payment Program. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 15(3), 429-436. |
| Choice A: | Merit based incentive payment system |
| Choice B: | Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipelined Stages |
| Choice C: | Multi-directional Impact Protection System |
| Choice D: | Medical Imaging Payment System |
