The Physician Group MRI Imaging Center Opportunity
Stephen Veals
CEO MRI Consulting Group
April 29, 2024
Building out and owning an MRI Imaging Center can be an enriching, exciting, and valuable opportunity, and the industry numbers tell a compelling story.
According to one industry source, close to 40 million MRI scans are performed annually in the United States alone, with over $100 billion in annual revenue! As the MRI Imaging Center business is forecast to continue growing, it stands to reason that you should want a place at that table!
MRI Imaging is a medical business regulated by Federal Law and, depending on where you have your medical practice, perhaps state laws as well. MRI Imaging Centers can most easily be owned as part of a single medical practice with an “in-office Setting” (Orthopedic, Spine, Neurosurgical, Surgical, etc.) under the Stark exception, and that is certainly something that many practices qualify for and benefit from having.
If you currently refer out 160 scans or more per month, you have sufficient in-practice scans to support and profit from owning an MRI.
160 scans per month is not large when you consider how many of your Physician partners and their Physician Assistants could reasonably order over an entire month.
It adds up to a lot of ancillary revenue you generate, but it is funneled to your local hospital or other MRI imaging center.
While there is much to consider in the Planning, Design, Buildout, and Implementation of a successful MRI Imaging Center, it can benefit your practice and patients and be a great source of ongoing ancillary revenue.
Creating a successful Turnkey MRI Imaging Center requires a conservative investment of $1,900,000 to $2,400,000, so it is a serious business venture.
Because it can be so profitable to the practices that can justify and support one, we have been able to access favorable funding.
We recently obtained 90/10 funding for the buildout of the facility to accommodate a state-of-the-art 1.5 Tesla MRI Magnet.
How profitable can your MRI be? I currently have a client orthopedic group with five surgeons who split $1,000,000 annually in MRI Imaging Center profit.
That makes for a very nice annual revenue bump. It certainly helps with Physician recruitment and Partner retention!
Putting together a profitable MRI Imaging Center is a very significant venture, expense-laden, labor-intensive, and with some regulatory risk, and it should be treated as such.
With expert planning, knowledge of the potential issues, and experienced guidance throughout the process, an MRI can yield long-term benefits, create practice equity, and offer the real opportunity to grow practice income without simply working harder.
And that is a pretty compelling prospect.
In future postings, we will help those who might consider such a venture understand the goals, needs, and complexity of your MRI Imaging Center Implementation Project.
When you use our consultancy guidance and expertise in developing your MRI Imaging Center, we will work to “keep you out of the weeds.”
We can also help you enjoy the process and become knowledgeable along the way! Our Experience can make a positive difference in the profitable outcome of your exciting MRI Imaging Center Project!
Contact us to arrange a complimentary call!
Please read these additional pages for more in-depth information:
The MRI Business Decision – Full Service – 1