Mitchell Fong, Founder and CEO, Innovise Consulting. Hosted by Mike Moore. Runtime 30:45.
This is the year rural health finally has the country's attention, and the money to match it. The Rural Health Transformation Program is putting fifty billion dollars into rural care over five years, and year one has been a scramble. Mitchell Fong has spent his career making care work in places most vendors used to skip, first as VP of Virtual Care at Renown Health, building telehealth across northern Nevada, Lake Tahoe, and northeast California, and now as founder and CEO of Innovise Consulting.
His central message: build for year six, not just year one. It's tempting to buy a stack of point solutions while the funding is here, but the operators who win will be the ones who start with a strategy and keep their eyes on the whole ecosystem. Imaging has a specific and often underappreciated place in that plan. Most services in a critical access hospital run on cost-plus reimbursement; imaging is one of the rare places a rural facility can turn a real fee-for-service margin, which helps subsidize the rest of the care it provides.
But that margin only holds if the image is worth something once it leaves the building. When priors don't travel, the urban specialist repeats the scan, the payer pays twice, and the patient starts a new relationship by redoing a test they already sat through. Mitchell and Mike get into why the fix isn't always another machine. Often it's the interoperability layer that lets a local scan be read where the specialist sits, so care and revenue both stay local.
“The specialist needs the best image to deliver the best care. Particularly if they're doing that virtually.”
“Imaging is an area where, on a fee-for-service basis, you can actually have a healthier margin.”
“Build something that's sustainable beyond the five years.”
Mitchell Fong is the founder and CEO of Innovise Consulting. He previously served as Vice President of Virtual Care at Renown Health, where he built telehealth programs across northern Nevada, Lake Tahoe, and northeast California. He advises digital health companies and works with rural and health-system leaders on virtual care, population health, and technology strategy.
Imaging is one of the few places a rural hospital can still turn a profit. Here's how not to waste it. covers the repeat-scan tax, why the fix is usually reach rather than another machine, and three questions for anyone writing a rural imaging plan.
Flight Path is Mach7's show about where healthcare imaging is going and the people helping it get there, hosted by Mike Moore. New episodes every other Tuesday.
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