January 2015

Pathologists Exploring Use of Diagnostic Teams

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 both diagnosticians and pathologists. In his pioneering work to develop the diagnostic management team concept, pathologist Michael Laposata, M.D., Ph.D., spoke recently about how such teams improve patient outcomes while reducing the cost of care.

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January 26, 2015 Intelligence: Late Breaking News

Late Breaking Lab News / By Robert Michel

Interesting things are happening in the commercial clinical lab testing market internationally. In New Zealand, district health boards continue a decadeslong trend of squeezing commercial lab companies with the goal of reducing laboratory testing costs and eliminating redundancies. Currently the district health boards (DHBs) of Capital Coast, Hutt Valley, and Wairarapa—representing the the lower part of New Zealand’s north island—are evaluating proposals to consolidate all community and hospital laboratory services into one service entity.

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Rheumatologists Oppose UnitedHealth’s BeaconLBS

Clinical Laboratory Trends / By Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: Yet another specialty society is opposing the laboratory benefit management program UnitedHealthcare introduced in Florida last fall. Rheumatologists have joined four other specialty physicians in saying UHC’s BeaconLBS system could be detrimental to patient care. In a letter to UHC, the Coalition of State Rheumatology Organizations said it, “will pursue the reversal of this policy with our state and national societies through every regulatory, legislative, and public means possible.”

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Did Theranos Turn Over its CLIA Lab Director?

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

PROBABLY NO SINGLE LAB INDUSTRY STORY OF THE PAST 24 MONTHS has generated a higher level of curiosity among pathologists and lab administrators than that of Theranos, the Palo Alto, California-based company that regularly claims it has the technology, the business model, and the low price strategy needed to disrupt the clinical lab testing marketplace.

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Meaningful Use Stage 2 Is Problem for EHR Firms

Laboratory Compliance / By Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: EHR system vendors must now comply with the federal government’s Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements. Well-established EHR vendors will survive. But smaller EHR companies may struggle to provide the enhancements to their first generation EHR products that are required to certify as MU Stage 2 compliant. These developments mean many physicians may need to find new EHR vendors. In turn, that will require clinical labs to build new interfaces to these physicians’ EHRs.

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UCLA Pathologists, Radiologists Produce Combined Reports

Pathology Trends / By R. Lewis Dark

CEO SUMMARY: To simplify diagnostic reporting, the pathology and radiology departments at the David Geffen School of Medicine/UCLA Medical Center are working together to deliver integrated diagnostic information to treating oncologists. This innovative strategy is designed to improve patient care and quality while saving time and cutting costs. For five months, diagnosticians have worked together on more than 50 lung cancer cases while gathering the evidence to show this interdisciplinary approach can improve decision making and reduce downstream treatment costs.

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UCLA Pathologists, Radiologists Produce Integrated Diagnostic Lab Reports

TDR Insider / By Mary Van Doren

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Lab Industry to Confront Major Issues during 2015

Clinical Laboratory Trends / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: Will 2015 turn out to be a watershed year for the clinical laboratory industry? Not only are two federal agencies pushing forward with initiatives that will touch nearly every medical lab in the United States in the next 12 months, but other equally powerful trends continue to negatively influence the prices labs are paid for their testing services. All these factors make it essential for lab administrators and pathologist business leaders to work proactively to maintain their lab’s financial stability.

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Florida Docs Seek to Cut Ties with UnitedHealthcare

Clinical Laboratory Trends / By Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: Physicians in Florida continue to express significant concerns about UnitedHealthcare’s pilot program requiring pre-notification for 80 clinical laboratory tests, including many routine tests, and pre-authorization for two genetic tests. The pro- gram is so onerous that some physicians have said they want to get out of their United contracts. Moreover, during a recent webinar to show Florida physicians how the BeaconLBS system works, officials from BeaconLBS could not get the system to function!

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Florida Pathologists Critical of UnitedHealth and BeaconLBS

Clinical Laboratory Trends / By Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: In a letter to UnitedHealthcare, the Florida Society of Pathologists says UHC’s pilot laboratory management program will have a negative effect on patient care by delaying access to care and timely diagnoses of disease. Signed by more than 120 members of the society, the letter lays out inconsistencies in the requirements of UHC’s pilot program that Florida physicians must follow to obtain pre-notification or pre-authorization for more than 80 clinical laboratory tests.

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