Since 1995, Reliable Business Intelligence for Clinical Laboratories, Pathology Groups and Laboratory Diagnostics

April 2002

California Is Lab Industry’s Bellwether Again

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / R. Lewis Dark

IT’S NO COINCIDENCE THAT two recent lab industry developments are centered around lab companies in California. Repeatedly that state has proven to be a valuable bellwether of lab industry trends for the nation. On the lab regulatory front, state officials from the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) have sanctioned Specialty Laboratories, Inc., based upon […]

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State, Federal Regulators Target Specialty Labs

Laboratory Compliance / Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: Specialty Laboratories, Inc. has earned the dubious honor of being the first-ever publicly-traded laboratory to have its CLIA-88 license revoked by federal regulators, terminating its right to payment for services covered by Medicare and Medicaid. The revocation is slated to take effect on April 26, but is subject to a court appeal that

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Quest Pays $1.1 Billion To Acquire Unilab Corp.

Clinical Laboratory Trends / Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: Quest Diagnostics Incorporated is showing its muscle. The dust had hardly settled on its $500 million acquisition of American Medical Laboratories when the lab industry’s behemoth announced that it would pay $1.1 billion to buy Unilab, by far the largest lab testing company in California. Integration of the two laboratory operations is planned

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Ken Freeman Discusses Plans to Integrate AML and Unilab

Clinical Laboratory Trends / Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: Once again, Ken Freeman and Quest Diagnostics Incorporated is altering the national market for clinical laboratory testing. By acquiring American Medical Laboratories and Unilab, the nation’s largest lab company is expanding its presence in California, Nevada, and Washington, DC. In this exclusive interview with THE DARK REPORT, Chairman and CEO Ken Freeman explains

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HMO Enrollment In Decline; PPOs Capture 48% of Market

Clinical Laboratory Trends / Robert Michel

ENROLLMENT IN THE NATION’S HMOS has declined in each of the last two years. Experts now believe the heyday of the classic closed-panel, gatekeeper model of the HMO has ended. “HMOs are in full retreat,” observed Bryant Armstrong, a healthcare consultant in the Dallas office of Hewitt Associates. “They are not dead by any means.

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Dynacare, LabCorp, IMPATH, Visible Genetics, Abbott Labs

Clinical Laboratory / Robert Michel

ACTIVITY AT DYNACARE HINTS AT POSSIBLE SALE, LABCORP MAY BE BUYER With Quest Diagnostics Incorporated snapping up independent lab companies right and left in recent months, the question asked by many is “Where’s Laboratory Corporation of America?” On the sell side, American Medical Laboratories and Unilab have been acquired by Quest Diagnostics. The largest remaining

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“April 22, 2002 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

Late Breaking Lab News / Robert Michel

Careside, Inc.’s point-of-care instruments for routine chemistry and hematology are moving into the clinical marketplace. (See TDR, November 22, 1999.) Through January, the company, based in Culver City, California, had placed 73 units, with another 17 on order. Careside’s marketing strategy is to emphasize sales of these instruments to physician office settings rather than hospitals.

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Clinical Decision Support Systems Arrive

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / R. Lewis Dark

FORWARD THINKERS IN CLINICAL LABORATORIES and anatomic pathology groups have always recognized the substantial, but as yet unharvested, potential that would accrue to the healthcare system were clinicians to make better use of laboratory testing. All of us know stories and anecdotes about how certain of these forward thinkers tried to get their hospital or

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Shortage of Med Techs Stimulates Innovation

Laboratory Management / Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: In Western Tennessee, a seven-hospital rural health system is pulling out all stops to solve the staffing crisis in its laboratory division by implementing programs that address both retention and recruiting. “Bench bonuses,” college loan repayment programs, recruitment bonuses, and shift differentials are just a few of the methods used to attract and

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Catfight in New York Over Lab Supplies Law

Laboratory Compliance / Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: All labs serving physicians’ offices worry about the delicate balance between complying with laws governing inducement and protecting clients against competing labs who interpret those same laws more liberally. Recent events in New York state graphically demonstrate the compliance dilemma, particularly when regulators are shy about taking enforcement actions against offenders. FINAL REGULATIONS

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