President's Message 7/12/2002

Thank you for affording me the privilege of serving as your president for the 2002-2003 term. Enclosed are the minutes from the spring IRS meeting held on Saturday, May 4th – it was a very productive session. During the coming year, your society's leadership will focus its efforts on the following:

1) Establishing and developing a closer relationship with the Indiana Radiology Business Managers Association (IRBMA). Prior to the IRS meeting on the 4th, we held a joint session with the IRBMA leadership to explore ways the two organizations could coordinate their efforts, particularly with respect to the Medicare Carrier Advisory Committee and the society's Economics and Health Policy database of Medicare claims.

2) Refining and expanding the database. This repository currently holds almost 4 million claim records from around the state and serves as a resource for the Carrier Advisory Committee representatives to shape Medicare's local medical review policies. These policies define the parameters for radiology reimbursement in Indiana. We have formed a working group with the IRBMA and our Health Policy advisor, BKD, with the goal of extracting denial code information from the database. If successful, radiology will be able to strengthen its position vis a vis the local Medicare carrier.

3) Linking reimbursement with accreditation. The membership response on this issue (sent to you earlier this spring) was overwhelmingly in favor of requiring Indiana imaging facility accreditation in a modality as prerequisite for reimbursement (76% for). A motion to this effect was passed at the meeting and is included in the minutes. Indiana is the first chapter of the ACR to adopt such a position. IRS leadership is working with the ACR on a plan to approach the payers with this proposal.

I would like to thank Ken Kopecky for the outstanding job he did as president in 2001-2002. The society has been blessed with a succession of highly competent leaders in recent years. The IRS is in excellent shape as a result of their vigilance. It is my intention to keep you apprised of our activities this year and you will receive periodic notices of them. In the meantime, please consider contributing to our political action committee, RADPAC. You can send your check to PO Box 3767, Reston, Virginia 20195-1067. You already belong to the Radiology Advocacy Alliance (RAA; a requirement for RADPAC contribution) courtesy of the IRS. Feel free to contact me anytime at mthom2444@aol.com.

Marc Thomas, M.D.