Scanning technology is all the rage in the medical world, but it’s expensive and exposes patients to radiation. Thus the rise of a new business niche:
Some insurers are employing radiology benefit management firms (now known as RBMs, we live in a world of acronyms) to approve or deny physicians’ requests for scans on their patients. This method reduces the number of scans performed but not necessarily costs, since a lot of medical time is used up in providing the RBMs with the information required for them to be able to make a decision.