MRI Magnet Choices - Full Service

Selecting your MRI Magnet. Lease and Purchase Considerations for your MRI Imaging Center - Module #4

When it is time to select an MRI Magnet Choice for their MRI Imaging Center, we save our clients a great deal of money.

When buying or leasing an MRI for $1.5 million or more, you need experienced assistance in your corner!

We can make a real difference and provide second-to-none assistance and guidance in negotiating your MRI Purchase, Lease, and equipment. You must consider the type and model that best suits your needs and the (often expensive) annual MRI maintenance agreement for your MRI Imaging Center. We have successfully negotiated the best terms for this time after time. We can do a great job in this area for you!

You will want to fully understand your MRI Imaging Equipment purchase and lease choices, and you have several options. The MRI type, size, weight, dimensions, model, equipment age, and even the year when the model you are interested in was first introduced.

The manufacturer, vendor, and agreement terms you might choose will all have long-term implications that can be difficult to amend or terminate once made. Your MRI Magnet choice can significantly influence the success or failure of your MRI Imaging Center Project.

A well-considered choice of an MRI Magnet can affect the profitability and success of your MRI Imaging Center project.

MRI Image Scan resolution and interpretation, patient comfort, and exam patient throughput can all suffer greatly when you make the wrong MRI Magnet Selection for your MRI Imaging center.

The selection of the MRI Magnet you secure and install is not a decision you should make without significant analysis and the experienced assistance of an independent, non-manufacturer consultant. This is precisely what we provide, bringing our understanding of the factors, history, limitations, and benefits of a particular MRI Magnet model under consideration.

What are some of the choices you will need to consider when you select an MRI Magnet for your MRI Imaging center?

Depending on your needs, you might choose a new or refurbished MRI unit, a 1.5 Tesla MRI Magnet, a 3.0 Tesla MRI Magnet, or a lower field strength extremity unit.

Do you want a 60 cm or 70 cm wide bore for your MRI Magnet? When reviewing a specific MRI Magnet for your Imaging Center, we will also want to know the imaging specialty coil options you might require for the studies you anticipate needing to perform. We must determine if they are available for the MRI Magnet model under consideration.

We will consider the clinical range of patient imaging studies you will perform: Ortho, Brain, Spine, Abdomen, whole body, extremity only, contrast or non-contrast studies, or studies with and without contrast. These factors will help determine the best MRI magnet for your needs.

Does a specialized attached or detachable patient table come with the MRI Magnet you are considering for your MRI Imaging Center, or does that also require additional purchase?

How about contrast injection? Will that be a necessity for your MRI setting? Do you want to control the contrast injection process from the operator control room? Will you perform specialized MRI imaging studies requiring additional clinically specific equipment purchases and build-out considerations?

What type of MRI specialty coils do you need, and what does your MRI unit come with or not come with, as it relates to patient coils?

One of the very most important considerations in the selection of an MRI Magnet, in my experience, that is rarely discussed and needs to be determined by a savvy MRI Magnet Buyer, is to determine the amount of field engineer maintenance support that is available in a given geographic area, for the MRI Magnet model under purchase or lease consideration.

When selecting your MRI Magnet, we will consider service availability.

This can even extend to knowing the average travel time for a maintenance field engineer to arrive at your MRI Imaging Center site for a service call.

When selecting an MRI Magnet for your Imaging Center, we want to ensure that it has a history of high operational "UPTIME" compared to the MRI units available from competitors.

When you build an imaging center, the meter runs daily. Staff is scheduled and paid, equipment and the building lease are running, building utility costs occur, and more.

In addition to the expense side that never goes away, as it relates to equipment maintenance issues and" downtime," the unexpected loss of one day of MRI Imaging Center Patient Revenue can approach, exceed, and deprive your center of $10,000 to $15,000 or more in patient revenue.

MRI Imaging Equipment downtime is a significant financial liability we work to avoid at every opportunity. If it happens often enough and takes hold, MRI equipment downtime can seriously impact your MRI Imaging Center.

I can say in some markets where I have been responsible for the planning and implementation of an MRI Imaging Center, having one of the major vendors who have in the past had a quick field response to MRI Maintenance issues in a remote area made the difference in recommending the selection of one MRI vendor over another.

In addition, with MRI downtime, you never know in advance if your Equipment Downtime will be short (< 24 hours) or longer due to the need to obtain parts for your MRI Unit. So the MRI vendor with the most MRI units installed and needing to be serviced in your geographic area (The Service Team are often in the area), will have more support and maintenance engineers when required.

I have never been disappointed in recommending the purchase of an MRI from an MRI vendor with a record of very positive field maintenance and engineering response time in the geographic area where I would recommend their MRI unit to my client.

We will help determine whether your new MRI Magnet should be leased or purchased.

We will advise on the terms and length of the lease or purchase repayment. An unreasonably expensive lease or purchase agreement for your MRI Magnet can add thousands of additional dollars each year to your MRI Imaging Center Project expenses.

In our experience, these purchase and lease agreements are many pages long and must be carefully reviewed. We have worked closely and successfully with our MRI Imaging Center clients over many years to bring them considerable cost savings and real bottom-line benefits. In the past, I have viewed lease and purchase agreements for two comparable MRI units and two different vendors on behalf of clients. I found significant differences in the terms and provisions of each, sometimes with very significant expense implications.

In one MRI Imaging Center Vendor Magnet lease I reviewed, the client would have been charged additional fees per scan in any given lease year if their scan volume exceeded a threshold number of scans performed on the leased unit.

This potentially costly detail was mentioned in the voluminous lease agreement but had been overlooked by the client and became an unwelcome surprise.

Based on experience, we can often negotiate a front-end 6-month skip in lease payments tacked on to the end of the client lease period.

The real benefit is that your insurer's payments trickle in the first six months of your MRI Imaging Center's Operation and may not catch up until about six months into operations.

Meanwhile, paying your expenses without corresponding offset in new imaging revenue can leave you in a negative income situation until your revenue rebounds and exceeds expenses, hopefully within six months.

In one of our most recent MRI Imaging Center Turnkey projects, we took advantage of the MRI vendor's six-month waiver on monthly lease payments for a new MRI Magnet. The relief from the first six monthly payments totaled $89,496.

Those payment skips and the temporary relief they gave made a significant positive difference in Imaging Center viability, cash flow, and reduction in the monthly drawdown of startup funds.

When selecting an MRI Magnet for your MRI Imaging Center, it is essential to understand precisely what the various equipment maintenance/service agreements cover, for how long, and at what price.

We carefully negotiate these MRI Magnet annual Imaging Center maintenance agreements and have considerable experience obtaining the most favorable terms and keeping more money in our client's pockets.

These annual MRI Magnet equipment maintenance agreements cost you 100k-150k or more per year in expenses on a new MRI Magnet. This amount is significant in a six-year lease period and can quickly add up to real money! You will benefit from our expert assistance in this crucial area of negotiation of annual MRI maintenance agreements.

MRI Consulting Group has guided many clients on these questions, issues, and more.

Our role is to understand and negotiate advantageous pricing and payment terms for their MRI Imaging Centers, including Magnet Leases, Purchases, Coils, associated imaging equipment packages, and crucial annual maintenance agreements.

We have assisted clients in many MRI purchases and lease agreements and work with all vendors and suppliers.

We know what to look for and how to evaluate the many choices to select the best MRI magnet, equipment, and terms for your needs. You will have the proper MRI imaging center equipment and the best opportunity for a highly professional, patient, safety-centric, and profitable MRI Imaging Center.

Many new and refurbished MRI units are available, with much to consider before selection. We are very proud to have advised our MRI Imaging Center clients on some excellent choices for their MRI Imaging Center and helped them avoid potential decisions that would not have been in their best interest.

Through our deep independent industry-wide relationships and Turnkey MRI Imaging Center build-out experience, we have helped clients to negotiate purchase and lease agreements that have shaved many thousands of dollars off of the price they were informed was the price of their MRI Magnet, Coils, Accessories, and maintenance agreement, always with an understanding of their clinical scanning requirements.

 

In this Module, we will address

• Understanding all the ways an Owner's Representative or consultant can save you money on the MRI lease, purchase, selection of equipment, terms and conditions, and annual warranty and maintenance agreements.

• Purchase or Lease: What are the benefits or liabilities and significant details to be aware of when leasing or purchasing your MRI unit?

• Selection of a new or refurbished MRI unit: what do you need to know, and how does the pricing differ?
• Who are the Manufacturers and Vendors of MRI units?
• Value of MRI scan acuity and resolution, and how to make it work to your MRI Imaging Center Advantage.
• Make sure you understand the MRI model and manufacturer comparisons.
• Value of MRI scan throughput, and how to make it work to your MRI Imaging Center Advantage.
• Understanding the benefits and liabilities of a new or refurbished MRI Unit for your MRI Imaging Center.
• Understanding the 70 cm wide bore MRI unit compared to the previous standard 60 cm bore.
• Selection of MRI Specialty Coils and what comes with your lease or purchased unit.
• Don't lose critical MRI scan revenue on MRI downtime. Understanding the value of MRI ImagDon'tquipment Uptime and selecting MRI vendors based on known, demonstrated MRI Field Maintenance and support in your Geographic Market.
• How energy-efficient is the MRI Magnet that you are looking at? What are MRI units more efficient than other MRI units, and what does MRI unit efficiency look like, such as electricity, Helium, etc?
• Looking closely at voluminous MRI Lease and Purchase documents? What should you be looking for and be aware of in these documents?
• Understanding city water backup cooling systems for a fraction of the cost of a backup generator. Systems and what you need to know.

• Do you have a clinical specialization (Spine, neuro, or other) that you want to optimize when selecting your MRI imaging unit?

• Do you have unique construction or building refit considerations related to any number of items?
• Was an MRI Magnet housed in the suite before your new lease? If so, what type and size was the previous unit's magnet? Is the building site slab on grade?
• Do you know of any special considerations regarding the siting of your MRI Magnet? These include cryogen venting, proximity to other medical services and hallways, low ceiling heights, the location of elevators and all sources of electromagnetic interference and vibration, close parking decks, major traffic corridors, and minor interior dimensions.

Implementation – Full Service

Teleradiology/Radiologist – Full Service – 11

Magnet Suite – Full Service – 13