IMAGING · RADIOLOGY
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Consolidation and Change in Radiology: Where’s This Train Headed?
A wide range of market forces are shifting the landscape around radiology practice: how will hospital and health system leaders respond? By Mark Hagland
T
he world of radiology practice is more complex than ever these days, with the ongoing consolidation of
some extremely large nationwide radi- ology practices proceeding apace, even as hospital and health system leaders struggle with shortages of available radi- ologists. Diagnostic radiology is almost unique among the medical specialties in that it can be performed totally remotely (of course, interventional radiology is dif- ferent in that respect). And with ongoing shortages of the availability of diagnostic radiology services, the leaders of both hospitals and health systems on the one hand, and of large, multispecialty medi- cal groups, on the other hand, continue to have to strategize forward in order to ensure that they have adequate diagnostic radiologic coverage at all times, even as private equity is in certain ways distorting
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the market, from a hospital and health sys- tem standpoint. Where is all this headed? As Emily Hayes, a contributing writer
for the radiology-focused publication AuntMinnie, wrote on Dec. 14, 2021, “Private equity money has been flowing readily into healthcare in recent years, and radiology is no exception. But what will be the long- term impact of this investment, and how will it change the specialty? Evidence indicates major changes are already under- way.” And she quoted Professor Richard M. Scheffler, Ph.D., who along with his colleagues Laura M. Alexander and James R. Godwin, in their paper published on May 18, 2021, entitled “Soaring Private Equity Investment in the Healthcare Sector: Consolidation Accelerated, Competition Undermined, and Patients At Risk,” argued that “The private equity business model is fundamentally incompatible with sound
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hcinnovationgroup.com | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022
healthcare that serves patients, “as “Private equity funds, by design, are focused on short-term revenue generation and consoli- dation and not on the care and long-term wellbeing of patients.” In any case, what’s clear is that consolidation has dramatically changed the landscape around radiology as a field. And if there’s a single company that
has become a focus of attention in that regard, it might be Radiology Partners. As Marty Stempniak wrote in Radiology Business on March 17, “Radiology Partners saw its revenues climb to more than $2 billion last year, a 13-fold increase over the tally recorded five years ago. That’s according to an update from S&P Global Ratings agency, shared on Wednesday. Back in 2016, the El Segundo, California- based organization collected $176 million in revenue. Since then, it has executed
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