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

December 2012

Finding Lab Growth Opportunities Amid the Gloom

IN MANY WAYS, THE TRADITIONAL BUSINESS MODELS for laboratory testing services are proving deficient in the face of a swiftly-evolving healthcare system. I suspect that none of us fully understand how many laboratory organizations are already under extreme financial stress. We intuitively understand that, somewhere out in the healthcare marketplace, clever and innovative pathologists are …

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2012’s Top Ten Lab Stories Predict More Challenges

CEO SUMMARY: It’s been a year with more lows than highs, when viewed through the lens of THE DARK REPORT’S “Top Ten Lab Stories of 2012.” The end of the TC grandfather clause, new policies for prostate biopsy billing, and a dramatic 52% cut to 88305- TC fees were widely reported. But there was equally …

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Price Cuts, Long Delays in Payment Are Expected

CEO SUMMARY: In addition to a steep cut in the 88305 CPT code, anatomic pathology laboratories can expect cuts in the payment from Medicare for molecular and prostate biopsy testing. Two national experts in lab billing and reimbursement warn labs to expect confusion in how both public and private payers implement these new policies. Overall, …

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Ascend Clinical Acquires PathCentral Lab Business

CEO SUMMARY: Ascend Clinical and PathCentral see an opportunity to provide sophisticated services to community pathology groups. Ascend Clinical will expand the molecular diagnostic and gene sequencing business it is purchasing from PathCentral. PathCentral will concentrate on marketing its cloud-based anatomic pathology LIS solution and launching a pathology professional network early in 2013. Each company …

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Preserving Competition Is Goal of California Lawsuit

CEO SUMMARY: Once again, the use of deeply-discounted lab test pricing to win exclusive managed care contracts is involved in a court case. However, this latest private lawsuit is different from earlier cases because it seeks to preserve competition in the lab testing and the managed care contracting marketplaces, said an attorney for the four …

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December 31, 2012 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

It is likely that the latest lab acquisition by Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc. (BRLI) is for the purpose of building its new Hispanic laboratory business, called Laboratorio Buena Salud. Earlier this month, BRLI announced an agreement to purchase Meridian Clinical Laboratory Corporation, located in Miami, Florida. It’s a small transaction, with a price of approximately $1.85 million. …

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PAML, Pathology and New Opportunities

BY ANY MEASURE, MAJOR CHANGES ARE COMING to the profession of laboratory medicine. I assume that you are familiar with most of the trends, healthcare reforms, and significant reductions in lab test reimbursement that appear regularly in the headlines. Many of these developments are unfavorable to the status quo in today’s lab testing marketplace. At …

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Four California Labs Sue Quest and Three Insurers

CEO SUMMARY: Allegations of anticompetitive and monopolistic behaviors that violate state and federal laws are the basis of a private lawsuit filed by four independent clinical lab companies in California. The defendants are Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, Aetna, Blue Shield of California, and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Plaintiffs claim that the defendants “conspired… to …

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RDX Alters Business Plan Due to Lab Market Changes

CEO SUMMARY: Executives at Regional Diagnostic Laboratories (RDX) made a splash last May when they announced the new company’s plans to acquire hospital laboratory outreach programs, backed by a capital commitment of $250 million. Now, in recognition of swift changes in the lab test marketplace, RDX has pulled back and will wait for a more …

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New Business Helps Reduce Pathology Specimen ID Errors

CEO SUMMARY: Prevention of diagnostic testing errors is getting more attention by both physicians and pathology labs because patients are less tolerant of potentially life-changing errors. Strand Diagnostics’ Know Error system is designed to reduce or eliminate errors involving tissue specimen misidentification. In this first part of our two-part series, we provide information about the …

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