June 2010

AG Jerry Brown Settles With Westcliff Med Labs

CEO SUMMARY: In California, Attorney General Jerry Brown is making progress in the whistleblower lawsuit alleging that seven lab companies in California violated state law by not giving Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, the same lowest lab test prices they extend to physicians, managed care plans, and IPAs. Westcliff Medical Laboratories, Inc., is the first …

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Did Wrong Strategy Sink Westcliff Medical Labs?

Laboratory Management / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: All sorts of people will argue all sorts of opinions about the financial demise of BioLabs, Inc., and its subsidiary, Westcliff Medical Laboratories, Inc., and why it ended up in a California bankruptcy court. Documents filed in the case indicate that, from the birth of the new company in June, 2006, it never …

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Taming the Blood Beast With Better Utilization

Laboratory Management / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: For hospital labs, explosive increases in the cost of blood products is a budget buster. At St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital, a multi-year blood management program is paying big dividends. Patient safety has improved, even as utilization of blood dropped by 7,000 units per year. Annual savings from this innovative blood management program now …

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June 1, 2010 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

Late Breaking Lab News / By Robert Michel

Kaiser Permanente Northern California says it now has all 21 hospitals and 160 clinics and medical offices up and running with a fully functioning electronic health record (EHR) system. This ends implementation of a decade-long effort that cost $4 billion. Kaiser claims that its HealthConnect EHR is currently the world’s largest private sector EHR system. …

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