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

February 2016

Does Private Practice Pathology Have a Future?

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

IN RECENT DECADES, A PROPORTION OF PATHOLOGISTS has been proud of the fact that the pathology profession—to a large extent—had managed to protect the vast majority of private pathology group practices from any number of powerful trends and market forces. In the 1990s, HMO contracting practices triggered a major wave of consolidation of hospitals, primary …

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Palmetto GBA Issues Guidance On Billing NGS Test Panels

Genetic Testing / By Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: Across the lab industry, next generation sequencing is taking hold as an effective and efficient testing platform. In response, payers are developing coding and payment policies that may affect the finances of clinical labs. Last month, Palmetto GBA, a Medicare contractor, issued NGS test guidelines that some experts see as an attempt to …

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Payers Using Two Approaches To Price Molecular, Genetic Tests

Laboratory Billing / By Joseph Burns

PRIVATE PAYERS AND MEDICARE contractors are taking divergent approaches to establishing coverage policies and setting prices for molecular and genetic tests. That’s what Kuo Bianchini Tong, MS, CEO of Quorum Consulting Inc., sees happening. “One approach seeks to recognize the clinical utility and value of these tests with nuanced, more discreet coding and pricing,” he …

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How Mentors Can Best Train Young Lab Leaders

Laboratory Management / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: Mentoring will be the theme of a special learning track at this year’s Executive War College. Two nationally-respected experts on mentoring and leadership development will work with participating lab mentors and mentorees to help them advance their mentoring relationship. All of this is designed to help your laboratory prepare its younger managers to …

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Henry Ford Health System Laboratory Division Combines Lean with ISO 15189

Lean Six Sigma / By Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: As healthcare transitions away from fee-for-service payment and adopts new models of reimbursement, every clinical lab will need to deliver more value with its lab testing services. At Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, the laboratory division has blazed a path of improving lab performance specifically to enable it to add value to …

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LabCorp Now Larger than Quest, Two Labs Report 2015 Earnings

Clinical Laboratory / By Robert Michel

IN RECENT WEEKS, the nation’s two largest lab companies reported fourth quarter and full-year earnings for 2015. The earnings reports reveal how the paths of the two companies are diverging. The companies are diverging because of a major acquisition made in February 2015, by Laboratory Corporation of America. LabCorp bought Covance Inc. in a deal valued …

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February 29, 2016 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News

Late Breaking Lab News / By Robert Michel

Sandy, Utah-based Sure Genomics is the latest genetic testing company to get a letter from the Food and Drug Administration asking why the company is marketing its SureDNA genetic testing kit to consumers without first obtaining clearance from the federal agency. The FDA sent the letter to Sure Genomics earlier this month and noted that the …

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Payers Using Two Approaches To Price Molecular and Genetic Tests

TDR Insider / By Joseph Burns

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This analysis, unique to THE DARK REPORT, contrasts the decision of Palmetto GBA to distinguish between “hotspot” tumor panels (meaning those targeting 5 to 50 genes and 51 or more genes) versus “sequencing” tumor panels in coding and pricing NGS test panels, with simpler approaches used by other health insurers. Understanding these differences …

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Henry Ford Health System Labs Show How Lean Methodology in Healthcare Increases Revenues

TDR Insider / By Mary Van Doren

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Here’s a major accomplishment by the lab division of a nationally-recognized health system that has gone unreported until this DARK REPORT intelligence briefing. This article explains how using the quality management system of ISO 15189 and the Lean methodology in healthcare allow it to absorb shrinking lab budgets while improving quality, and, at the …

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Florida bill to restrict BeaconLBS advances in state Senate

Clinical Laboratory Trends / By Mary Van Doren

THE DARK REPORT is first to report on the latest development as part of its ongoing coverage of how Florida physicians are reacting to the implementation of the UnitedHealthCare laboratory benefits management program and the requirement to use the BeaconLBS system before they can order any of 80 designated lab tests. The response of the …

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