Midtown Medical Imaging is one of the medical imaging companies benefiting from participation in the Quality Care Collaborative (QCC). Here’s how the company uses its participation in the QCC to demonstrate to payors how it delivers the highest quality of medical imaging and radiology reporting at a lower cost.
Last year, Nuance partnered with Covera Health to launch the Quality Care Collaborative (QCC), a nationwide program that brings payors, providers, and self-insured employers together to enhance the quality of medical imaging.
The QCC combines the Nuance Precision Imaging Network for medical image sharing and radiology AI services with Covera’s AI-powered Diagnostic Intelligence Platform for image quality analysis and insights. The first of its kind, this program has created a secure environment for members to share data and collaborate on quality improvement and peer-learning initiatives. Its core function is enabling participants to work towards universal best practices and better outcomes for all through clinically validated AI, analytics, and more.
One of the founding principles of the QCC is to demonstrate the impact that high-quality medical imaging has on clinical outcomes and costs. And one great example of a QCC participants putting that principle into practice is Midtown Medical Imaging.
A commitment to high-quality medical imaging
Midtown Medical Imaging is a privately-owned outpatient company that provides 3 Tesla MRI, CT, ultrasound, and X-ray services at four locations in the Fort Worth-Southlake area of the Dallas Metroplex. It joined the QCC to show payors that high imaging quality and analysis doesn’t have to mean high imaging costs.
“Midtown Medical Imaging is committed to maintaining the highest level of equipment in our imaging centers, and this standard enables us to set ourselves apart from competitors,” says Rocky Vig, the owner of Midtown Medical Imaging. “And to take our efforts to offer high-quality services one step further, our radiology partners are all sub-specialized radiologists.”
This commitment to quality led the University of North Texas to select Midtown Medical Imaging to manage an MRI facility that supports one of the largest community-based Alzheimer’s research programs in the world. By joining the QCC, the company has another way to showcase that quality is central to all its services—and that it doesn’t have to come at a premium.
The best imaging quality at a lower cost
Joining the QCC allows Midtown Medical Imaging to demonstrate to payors how it delivers superior imaging quality in an affordable way—pushing back against the idea that radiology needs to be expensive to be effective.
“Like most industries, the perception of payors is the better the quality, the more it costs,” says Rocky. “We see so many patients who have imaging elsewhere, and the insurance companies think they’re getting the highest quality. But what really happens is they end up paying double. When specialized physicians get those images, they often find they’re not extremely detailed, and the patient needs to be re-imaged. It’s a burden on the patient, a burden on the payor, and it’s a burden on society, as it can drive higher insurance prices.”
Midtown Medical Imaging has a roster of highly specialized radiologists—and participating in the QCC allows those partners to showcase and extend the value they bring to a patient’s care journey. “It enables us to show that we go beyond meeting the standards of the ACR,” Rocky explains. “It facilitates radiologists collaborating with one another, in real time, to ensure the final patient report is at the highest level of accuracy. We hope that demonstrating this to payors will drive further appreciation of what we do every day for our patients by delivering high-quality imaging at lower costs.”
Collaborating to achieve a common goal
Collaboration is at the heart of the QCC mission, with Nuance and Covera working alongside providers, payors, and employers across the country to quantify and improve medical imaging quality and deliver better clinical outcomes. And with AI-powered imaging quality and diagnostic insights, radiologists can amplify their impact on patients’ care journeys.
“Being onboarded into the QCC has been a true collaboration,” says Rocky. “We’re all focused on how we can deliver the most accurate imaging reports to improve patient care. The QCC offers the roadmap to help focus on image and reporting quality, and promoting that quality to payors and their members.”
“As part of the QCC, we can demonstrate to payors how our high-quality imaging and reporting deliver the right information to do the right procedure the first time, positively impacting the course of care,” he adds. “It’s a win-win-win for the patient, the imaging facility and radiologists, and the payor.”
