Cedars-Sinai Executive Joins AHA Policy Board

- Bryan Croft is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, as well as the CEO of Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital. His responsibilities include overseeing all service lines and clinical support services, such as imaging, surgery, and neurology. - The American Hospital Association's Regional Policy Boards meet three times a year to provide input on policy issues to the AHA's Board of Trustees. Recent advocacy priorities have included protecting against site-neutral payments and addressing the physician workforce shortage. - The shift to outpatient settings is a significant trend in diagnostic imaging, with roughly 40% of all radiology volume now occurring in outpatient centers. This move is driven by the lower cost and increased convenience for patients. - Health systems are increasingly developing "systemness" strategies to coordinate imaging services across both hospitals and outpatient sites to capture growth and improve efficiency. Cedars-Sinai has expanded its community-based care with facilities like the Breast Imaging Center in Marina del Rey to increase local access and shift routine services to more efficient, specialized environments. - Projections indicate a significant increase in demand for advanced imaging, with PET scans expected to grow by 23%, ultrasound by 16%, and CT scans by 15% over the next decade. Standard outpatient imaging is also projected to grow by about 10% in the same period. - Radiology departments are facing significant challenges, including declining reimbursement, workforce shortages, and burnout. A 2024 survey of radiology program directors identified high clinical volumes as a major impediment to education and work-life balance. - The FDA has cleared hundreds of AI-enabled tools for medical imaging, which assist radiologists in tasks like flagging potential cancers and prioritizing urgent cases. Companies like Aidoc have received FDA clearance for comprehensive AI triage solutions that analyze images and flag suspicious findings for radiologists. - Recent Medicare reimbursement changes under the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS) have been a point of contention. For instance, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 stipulated that off-campus hospital outpatient departments would no longer be paid under the generally higher Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) fee schedule, but rather under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS).