OBLs: Past, Present, and Future

Dr. Julien is one of the initial OBL founders in the United States. In 2001, he started his current practice, South Florida Vascular Associates in an effort to practice independent IR. At this time, he struggled to get hospital privileges due to exclusive diagnostic radiology contracts, so he placed a C-arm in his office out of necessity. Eventually, he built a formal angio suite. As a result, patients enjoyed the efficiency and comfort of office based procedures, and he enjoyed physician autonomy and freedom from hospital politics. Dr. Julien notes that overtime, CMS has recognized the value of an office-based intervention and saw that IRs could practice high-quality care at a lower price point with higher patient satisfaction, leading to improved Medicare reimbursements.

Since the conception of his OBL, Dr. Julien has seen practice structures change, especially with the influence of venture capital firms and the pressure to generate RVUs. Additionally, though some voices have pushed for more IR involvement in the clinical sphere, there has not been much progress made in advocating for IR hospital privileges. This is a significant barrier to independent IR practices, since some states require that an IR has hospital privileges before opening an OBL. Dr. Julien says that this dilemma is unique to IR, since other specialties, such as vascular surgery and cardiology, are not affected by exclusive contracts to the same extent. He believes that IR societies and leading voices should actively challenge the legal basis of these contracts and support interventionalists who want to stay independent. We highlight recent SIR and ACR position statements on this topic.

Finally, Dr. Julien offers advice to IRs who are seeking to enter the OBL setting. He encourages them to perform and learn from as many procedures as possible, find ways to develop and maintain clinical skills, identify mentors, and ensure that their restrictive covenants are not too stringent.