Contract negotiations with payors formerly were a lengthy process. Not any more; they are concluded now in half the time because payors have stopped telling radiology groups to take it or leave it and, instead, are simply saying, “Take it.” Payors seem to hold all the cards in any bargaining over reimbursement rates. Mark Kleinschmidt, CEO of St Paul Radiology in St Paul, Minn, suggests it need not be that way. There are, he indicates, strategies that a radiology group can employ to strengthen its hand at the negotiating table.
