Why imaging operations qualify
The four-part testNew to your organization counts
A platform, interface, or workflow only has to be new to your organization to count. It does not need to be new to healthcare.
Integrations bring unknowns
Will the interface pass every patient record without errors? Will the archive hold up at your volume? Nobody knows until it runs. Finding out is qualified work.
Iteration is experimentation
Months of interface fixes, upload failures traced and resolved, and beta feedback to a vendor are rounds of testing. Those rounds are the evidence.
The science is already there
Your integrations rest on computer science and your protocols on biological science. For imaging operations, the science test is the easy part.
A short study shows where your operation qualifies, and proves it. Read the four-part test in the words of the statute.
What qualifies in practice
Work you already bill for- Interface developmentBuilding the custom interfaces that move orders, results, and images between your imaging hub, scheduling, and records is development work.
- Patient engagement rolloutFitting a mobile intake and onboarding platform to an imaging workflow, then fixing what fails in the field, is qualified iteration.
- Billing system integrationConnecting the billing system to the image archive so studies, charges, and records reconcile is a technical problem your team solves.
- Cloud imaging platformMigrating storage and reading to a cloud platform and proving performance and retention under load is qualified systems work.
- Historical image ingestionLoading years of outside priors so tools can compare against them is a data engineering project with real uncertainty.
- AI tool brokeringStanding up the brokering, hosting, and feedback loop for a third-party AI tool is development work around a product you did not build.
- Mobile imaging workflowsMaking the same protocol and systems work on a mobile unit as in a fixed site takes technical adaptation. The adaptation counts.
- Internal automationBuilding agents or scripts that reconcile the archive, billing, and accounting is software development, and it can qualify.
Where the credit comes from
The expenses that countIT and clinical wages
The time your IT staff, administrators, and clinicians spend building and testing systems is the largest piece for most operations.
Integration vendors
A share of what you pay U.S. vendors for custom interface and integration work on qualified projects counts toward the credit.
Cloud computing
Hosting, brokering, and retention fees tied to a platform under development can count as computer rental.
What does not count
Routine license fees, support contracts, the scanners themselves, and finished software you simply use stay out. The study draws that line honestly.
Common questions
Our vendor did the integration work. Can it still count?
A share of what you paid U.S. vendors for the custom work counts, and the time your own staff spent specifying, testing, and fixing it counts in full.
A project took most of a year and still is not right. Does a struggle like that count?
That struggle is the point. Uncertainty about whether and how something will work is the third part of the test, and the fixes are the fourth.
Does software we build for our own operations qualify?
It can. Software built for internal use faces an extra test on innovation and risk, and the study applies it honestly rather than assuming.
Do cloud hosting and storage fees count?
Fees paid for hosting and retention while a platform or tool is under development can count as computer rental. Steady-state hosting after launch does not.
We are opening new locations. Does expansion count?
Opening a site is not research by itself. Standing up new technology or a new workflow at that site can be.
The vendor called our integration customized. Does that help?
It does. Work the vendor could not drop in from a prior client is work whose outcome was uncertain, which is what the credit rewards.
What records do we need?
The ones you already keep. Project tickets, interface specifications, change logs, and vendor invoices are the evidence. The study organizes them against the test.
How far back can we claim?
Up to three prior tax years, by amended return. Credits you never claimed are still there to collect.
What happens if the return is examined?
The people who wrote the study answer for it. Audit defense is included in every study at no added cost.
Which form does the credit go on?
Form 6765, filed with the return. From there it carries onto Form 3800 as part of the general business credit. The Form 6765 guide and the Form 3800 guide walk a CPA through both.
Thirty minutes shows whether you qualify.
Book a call and bring the person who knows the work. We will cover whether your projects qualify and what a credit could be worth.
Book a call Or write to inquiries@thefoundryfirm.com