Newsmaker Interview: Matthew Hawkins

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIII, No. 2 – February 8, 2016 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: By now, most pathologists and clinical laboratory administrators recognize that effective use of information technology will be a critical success factor as healthcare systems transform to do population health management and to use “big data” with value-based payment mode…

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Phlebotomy Contributes To Drop in Sepsis Mortality

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIII, No. 2 – February 8, 2016 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: When Intermountain Healthcare began a quality improvement program to address sepsis, its sepsis mortality rate was 20.2%, among the lowest in the nation. By 2007, all 15 of its hospitals had deployed this program. A breakthrough came in recent years, when a phlebotomist was a…

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Florida Lab Story Has National Implications

By R. Lewis Dark | From the Volume XXII No. 3 – February 17, 2015 Issue

PLEASE ALLOW ME TO THANK ALL OF YOU READERS who have contacted us with information, rumors, and useful intelligence about UnitedHealthcare’s laboratory benefit management program in Florida that is administered by BeaconLBS, a division of Laboratory Corporation of America. Your input, along with tha…

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Pathologists Exploring Use of Diagnostic Teams

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXII No. 2 – January 26, 2015 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: In the search for ways to add more value to lab testing services, pathologists and lab administrators are considering organizing diagnostic management teams within their hospitals. Such teams focus on complex cases and include…

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Labs, Path Groups Face Major Financial Issues

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXI No. 3 – February 24, 2014 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Are clinical labs and pathology groups ready for the end of fee-for-service reimbursement? That’s just one important question that will be answered at the upcoming Executive War College on Lab and Pathology Management that will take place in New Orleans on April 29-30. The …

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Alberta Lab RFP, FTC, LabMD Biodiagnostic Lab Services Guilty Pleas

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XX No. 13 – September 30, 2013 Issue

ALBERTA PROVINCE MAY SOON BID $3 BILLION CLINICAL LAB CONTRACT NEWS LEAKED ON SEPTEMBER 19 that Alberta Health Services (AHS) is preparing to issue a request for proposal (RFP) to select a company to build a state-of-the clinical laboratory facility to serve…

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PeaceHealth Lab Helps Docs with Info to Improve Outcomes

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XX No. 11 – August 13, 2013 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Described by its CEO as “an information company that happens to do laboratory testing,” PeaceHealth Laboratories of Springfield, Oregon, is moving swiftly to develop and deliver value-added services to its client physicians. The lab’s goal is to help re…

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July 29, 2013 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XX No. 10 – July 29, 2013 Issue

Another national health insurance corporation is preparing to institute pre-authorization for genetic tests. Cigna Corporation announced on July 23 that it had selected InformedDNA, to administer its new genetic testing and counseling program. Pathologists and laboratory administrators …

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Lab Landscape Changing as ACOs Get Started

By R. Lewis Dark | From the Volume XX No. 9 – July 8, 2013 Issue

FOR THOSE OF YOU INTERESTED IN HOW the development of accountable care organizations (ACOs) in a community causes a realignment among providers and the clinical laboratories serving them, I offer you the example of Genesis Health System in Davenport, Iowa. As you will read …

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Predicting the End of Fee-for-Service Medicine

By R. Lewis Dark | From the Volume XX No. 3 – March 4, 2013 Issue

HOW DISRUPTIVE WILL THE END OF FEE-FOR-SERVICE MEDICINE be to the lab testing industry? I ask this question because we are about to leave the era of fee-for-service (FFS) medicine and move into the era of value-based and bundled reimbursement. Since World War II, FFS has been the overwhelmingly domi…

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