The U.S. Office of Inspector General (OIG) has cleared an Arkansas hospital in the Veterans Health Administration of wrongdoing after an investigation into radiology exam interpretation.
The allegation stated that radiologists at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHS) stopped reading exams for patients when they had reached their minimum relative value unit (RVU) level. They then allegedly conducted fee-basis interpretations for other Veterans Affairs facilities during their tours of duty under a Teleradiology Reading Center (TRC) agreement.
However, OIG's review of 7,657 interpretations between January and June 2014 did not substantiate the allegations. Instead, OIG found that CAVHS radiologists conducted their teleradiology interpretations during nonduty hours, and they continued performing radiology interpretations for patients after they had reached their minimum production level.
