Gaylord Texan, Grapevine, TX

By Karen Stucker Rogers

Early on the morning of Sunday, August 22, the CRA Workshop classroom was filled with future CRAs.  These students weren’t your usual students, but in fact, they had years of experiences and minds full of knowledge.

The chatter among the crowd was, “Are you ready for the CRA Exam?”  We were all anxiously awaiting to find out what we knew and what we needed to learn.

Our day started with Ernie Stewart giving us very useful test taking tips.  After all, it had been years since some of us took a certifcation exam.  Ernie also discussed the communications and infomratin portion of the review.

Our day continued with Sheila Sferella discussing the fiscal management and asset management portion of the CRA Exam.  Sheila put us at east as she spoke, and her knowledge was evident as she explained the finance and asset tasks and skills.

Bill Johnson continued the day covering human resources management.  He stressed the importance of getting the right person for the job.

The day concludeed with Luann Culbreth discussing the topic of operations management.  She started her class with excitement and the “CRA Stretch” to get us moving and wake up for lunch.

All of the speakers were encouraging and possessed a depth of management knowledge.  They are all true and accomplished leaders in the industry.  They were very motivating and each brought excitement and pride to the class.  As the workshop ended, we were all challenged to study and pass the CRA Exam.

As a student that day, I was very impressed with the speakers and content of knowledge displayed at the workshop.  Now I am looking forward to reading the names of the newest CRAs in a few months!

ahraonline.org/photos/2010am/

Design Team member and real go-getter Angie McDonald created this video collage of the 2010 Annual Meeting. Thanks, Angie!

To view more videos, visit the AHRA YouTube page.

Please take some time (about 10 minutes) to give us your thoughts. And thank you in advance – we appreciate your involvement. (Just click on the link below.)

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/32QKSPN

More to come!

If you have photos and/or videos from the Annual Meeting that you’d like to share, upload them to our Flickr group page or contact us!

The AHRA Gold Award is the highest honor AHRA can bestow upon one of its members. The award is given to an AHRA member who has made significant contributions to the profession of imaging and healthcare administration. Nominations for the Gold Award come from the membership and any member may nominate a candidate. All members of AHRA are eligible to be considered for the award.

Below is list of donors who contributed to our Get Pinned Too campaign throughout the week.

Gars Abode
Bill Algee
Elizabeth Bates
Donna M. Blakley
Sanda Bobryk
Karen L. Branner
Karen Burgess
Linda Carrol
Sandra L. Cassidy
Barbara B. Colvin
Linda Creamer
Kristi A. Dalrymple
Janelle K. Deplitch
April Dixon
Terry Duggan-Jahns
Debra R. Farnham
Jerry Flannery
Marcia Green
John Halligan
Chistie Hentschl
Amy K. Hofmann
Cindy Hokanson
William R. Johnson
Jane Kettlehike
Larry Kirschner
Crystal H. Kollmorgen
Tim Lambrecht
Rosemary Lippincott
Florence M. Manga
Bobby McNeil
Kathy Meyer
Jason Newmark
Joan R. Oakley
Gretchen O’Mahoney
Heather Damon Pannone
Estela Prieto
Peggy Ann Pust
Dennis Reed
Steven Renard
John L. Roberts, Jr.
Louise Saxby
Pat Sousa
Stephanie Spencer
Karen E. Steinhice
Beverly Stoudt
Vanessa L. Turner
Denise M. Vill’Nueve
Michelle Wall
Thomas L. Wall
Frank Wendt
Sharon M. White
Cindy M. Winter
Ruth A. Woosley
Denise Stein
Karen E. Steinhice
Ernie R. Stewart, CRA
Richard S. Stonicher, FAHRA
Beverly Stoudt
Angie Swygart
Art Tasaka
Susan Tate-Potanovic
Jason C. Theadore, CRA
Lorraine Thies
John H. Thomas
Kristy Trent, CRA
Vanessa L. Turner
Denise Vander Werf
Beth Ann Vara
Carlos E. Vasquez, CRA, FAHRA
Mark A. Viau, CRA,FAHRA
Denise M. Vill’Nueve
Denise Vill’Neuve
Joanna Vipo
Brien J. Vokits, CRA, FAHRA
Michelle Wall
Thomas L. Wall
Glenn G. Watkins, FAHRA
Wiley E. Watterlond, CRA
Beth L. Weber, CRA
Cindy Wedel
Frank Wendt
Michael G. West, CRA, FAHRA
Sharon Whitaker
Sharon M. White
Edward T. White
Tana White
Jerold Stanley Wilcox, CRA
Robert S. Wilson
Cindy M. Winter
Gina F. Winters, CRA
Bonnie S. Wold
David A. Woodford, CRA
Ruth A. Woosley
Denys K. Wynn
Ed Yoder, CRA,FAHRA
Rosalyn Young
Debra Casey
Craig R. Iduoles
Alicia Lentini
Brian Matsusaka, CRA
Kay McCormack
Judy Offenback
Joanna Trevino
Judy Zavatsky
Aaron Turner
Lynn Sadler
Laurie Hitzel
Daniel Mapes
Robin Loebach
Joe Larson
Kimberly Ryles
Michael Calhoun
Dawn Annesty
Lin Poler
Laura Cleveland
Gina Collier
Randy Hill

This is your final chance to find Ed!

Click here for more “Where’s Ed?” info.

Shay Pratt answers questions following his engaging session, "The Future of Imaging Payment." Photo by Bruce Hammond, CRA

By Bruce W. Hammond, CRA

“The Future of Imaging Payment,” held on Monday by Shay Pratt of the Advisory Board Company impressed attendees from the start, just by the extensive resume of the presenter.  Yet the presentation was dramatically more detailed than the title would even suggest.  This presentation has such excellent data and information available, it is a must download, either from the AHRA website or at the conference using the gettag.mobi application on your smartphone (click here for details), one of the many new innovations AHRA has put in place this year.

Shay’s presentation followed these general subtopics:

• Outlook for Reimbursement
• Outlook for Volumes
• Outlook for Provider Supply
• Imaging and New Payment Models

The information shared was absolutely current.  Shay presented not ideas or concepts, but actual real world issues, historical perspectives, envisioned future moves by both public and private sectors, and actual examples of the process changes he and the group with which he is the managing director, the Imaging Performance Partnership, part of the Advisory Board Company.  Included was a discussion of the effects of the economic downturn and the actual effects on imaging and the movement back to “normal” as the economy stabilizes.

Significant on the reimbursement front is the expected move away from fee or service reimbursement and the move toward bundled services, pay for performance, and other mechanisms.  The pay for performance would include such items as appropriateness, utilization, and other benchmarking techniques.  Shay clearly stated that volume decreases would likely abate, but the net impact would not be significant, based on reduced reimbursement for those services.

The outlook for volumes presented a little better picture.  The high end imaging volume losses, some as high as 20%, will start to rebound.  The estimates are 2.5% per year for the next several years.  The factors influencing this move would be the impact RBMs have on the physician’s ability to order, the study authorized, and as previously noted, the lowered reimbursements.

Shay pointed to several studies and reports commissioned or prepared by groups such as the American College of Radiology (ACR); his own group; and the Radiology Business Managers Association (RBMA).  Many of those were excerpted in his slide presentation.  I highly recommend downloading the slides to retain for references; they are jam packed with details too numerous to mention here.  One final indicator of the quality of the presentation: this was an hour and a half of detailed number crunching information and not one person left—most were scribbling notes, and the applause at the end was spontaneous.  It was a good thing the afternoon break was scheduled for 2 pm, as there was a number of people surrounding the Pratt after the presentation.