Nicole Knight discusses building a sustainable business case for shared cardiac PET imaging

With cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) gaining more and more momentum as the preferred myocardial perfusion imaging modality, healthcare systems are increasingly looking at shared-service models between cardiology and radiology to make the technology financially sustainable and improve patient access.

Speaking during a business session at ACC.26, the American College of Cardiology (ACC) annual conference, earlier this year, Nicole Knight, LPN, CPC, CCS-P, executive vice president of revenue cycle solutions and care transformation at MedAxiom, said building a successful shared cardiac PET program requires careful planning around operations, reimbursement, staffing and physician collaboration—not simply purchasing an expensive PET scanner. She spoke to Cardiovascular Business in the above video interview.

"The operational and financial piece is key," Knight explained. "How do you allocate those resources? What does that look like from a business case with our payers? Who's going to interpret the studies? How do we ensure we're capturing all of the costs and supplies?"

Unlike oncology PET imaging, cardiac PET adds several workflow complexities, including pharmacologic stress testing and physician supervision requirements that radiology departments may not routinely manage. Those differences require coordination between cardiologists, radiologists, technologists and hospital administrators to maximize scanner utilization while maintaining reimbursement and regulatory compliance.