Occupying a ringside seat on the private practice radiology arena during a career that spans three decades, Greg Thomson, CPA, has seen the specialty evolve and adapt to a continually changing—and often challenging—health care environment. As Strategic Radiology’s new chief operating officer, he is far from done.  

Mr. Thomson began his career with Ernst & Young, and subsequently moved into practice mergers for Per Se Technologies. He migrated to revenue cycle management, first with Medical Management Professionals, followed by a period with CBIZ Medical Management Professionals, his initial exposure to the specialty of radiology. Mr. Thomson then graduated to practice management, working with numerous private practice radiology groups and ultimately leading the Zotec Partners practice management division to become the largest outsourced practice management firm in the U.S. 

Most recently, Mr. Thomson operated a health care consulting business in Orlando, Florida. His areas of expertise include leadership, radiology finance, joint venture development, strategic planning, process improvement, practice operations, revenue cycle management, ambulatory services, and business valuations.

When he is not working or spending time with family, Mr. Thomson is at the gym, riding with his cycling club, or decompressing at an obstacle course race. We recently posed the following questions to our new COO:

Q: What were you doing when you saw that the SR COO position was open, and what were your first thoughts? 

Thomson: I happened to be on the RBMA website reviewing forum posts when I noticed the COO position ad.  As it turned out it was posted earlier that day.  I have known and respected the SR model and mission for many years, so I was immediately interested.  My first call was to my good friend and former colleague Randy Roat who served in the COO role for many years.  Randy encouraged me to apply and felt the position would be a good fit for my skills and experience. 

Q: You have decades of radiology experience in practice management and revenue cycle management. Which of your experiences best prepared you for this position?

Thomson: In my practice management role, one of my primary responsibilities was to find ways to bring the value of our entire client base back to each and every practice management client.  That was in best practices, KPI’s, group purchasing, benchmarking, and so forth. For instance, I struck a national preferred pricing contract with a teleradiology firm that saved our clients on their teleradiology fees. This is very similar to my role at SR, so in that respect, I am translating my experiences to a new organization.

Q: In your view, what are the greatest opportunities for the coalition?

Thomson: With the array of services SR is now providing I believe there is a fit for almost all independent radiology practices across the US.  In other words, I believe if an independent radiology practice took a strong look at SR membership they would decide the benefits far outweigh the costs. While that’s a great place for SR to be today, I want to see SR bring even more value to each member practice while simultaneously representing independent radiology to both industry and government

Q: From your perspective, what are the greatest challenges facing private practice radiology?

Thomson: Reimbursement remains a huge challenge. Radiology took another 3%+ hit from Medicare in 2024 with no relief yet from Congress.  Finding radiologists remains a problem but that is not unique to private practice.  In my humble opinion, the single biggest challenge for private practice radiology is achieving economies of scale while maintaining independence, and that is one of the reasons for SR’s existence.  Insurance and technology are two of the biggest costs for a radiology practice, and SR is able to offer attractive pricing for both.

Q: What do you hope to achieve in your first year with Strategic Radiology?

Thomson: I have the good fortune of joining an organization that is already well run by our CEO, Dr. Scott Bundy.  My primary goal is to springboard off that base to grow the member usage of all the vendor relationships and opportunities that SR has obtained recently as well as growing the membership base of like-minded independent radiology groups to make SR even more attractive to vendors and members alike going forward.