Quality & Awareness
Quality and awareness are at the center of our philosophy for managing advanced medical imaging services. Over the last decade, National Imaging Associates (NIA), has consistently led the nation in providing solutions for our health plan and government agency customers that improve health care quality.
In partnership with our customers, we work to ensure that consumers do not have to undergo unnecessary scans, that diagnostic imaging services are used only when appropriate and that only qualified specialty clinicians render and evaluate medical imaging tests.
Using our unmatched clinical expertise and inventive solutions, we go the extra mile to promote the appropriate and safe use of diagnostic imaging services:
- Clinical Expertise
Clinical expertise is crucial for enhancing health care quality through radiology benefits management. All of our programs are developed in conjunction with radiologists and other physicians, and we use physician-developed evidence and consensus to provide high-quality decision support. As such, we continually advocate for greater development of evidence-based standards to oversee the practice of diagnostic imaging. - Accreditations & Regulatory Guidelines
We were the first in the industry to receive the URAC HIPAA Privacy and Security Accreditations and JCAHO/NCQA's Privacy Certification for Business Associates. Also, we are URAC accredited and NCQA certified in utilization management. You can rest assured that we are fully certified to handle all of the protected health information we receive in the course of our operations. In addition, NIA supports your health plan quality initiatives related to your accrediting requirements. This support includes: radiation mitigation, contrast usage management and timely reporting. In addition to maintaining our accreditations, we keep our eye on quality by following strict state and local regulatory guidelines. And, we maintain an active dialogue with local physicians to address new technologies and emerging practice patterns, to review outcomes and evaluate clinical criteria.
- Provider Privileging
Through our privileging system we work to improve health care quality and patient safety. Our clinical experts evaluate network providers to identify high-quality providers and determine the tests they are qualified to perform. But more than that, we conduct provider performance reviews to reinforce best practices and to help educate providers who are performing outside of those practices. - Peer-to-Peer Consults
Our medical necessity review process (decision support) is akin to a "second opinion" that provides an effective safeguard to ensure the right procedure is done at the right time, with the right equipment, by the right radiology professional. This is an important health care quality measure because research indicates that as many as one in three advanced diagnostic imaging procedures are unnecessary. By combining the latest in physician-developed, evidence-based criteria with each patient's unique situation, we help to improve health care quality for physicians and patients. - Radiation Awareness
We are deeply committed to ensuring that patients have access to high-quality, safe and clinically appropriate advanced diagnostic imaging services. From our consumer Web portal to physician notification about patients' radiation exposure, we're doing more than anyone in the industry to prevent unsafe use of imaging services.
We champion the importance of delivering quality, evidence-based health care while maintaining an eye on outcomes and costs. Our proven radiology benefits management solutions safeguard access, quality care and the clinical value of each and every imaging examination. Because at the end of the day, our goal is to ensure that patients receive the right care at the right time.
For more information about how NIA can put the power of our quality improvement efforts to work for you, your providers and your members, contact us.