March 2017

Lab Acquisitions: LabCorp, Quest, Sonic Do Hospital Lab Deals

This is an excerpt from a 1,021-word article in the March 13, 2017, issue of THE DARK REPORT. The complete article is available for a limited time to all readers, and available at all times to paid members of the Dark Intelligence Group. CEO SUMMARY: Is this year’s early spate of deals involving the sales of hospital lab […]

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Are Clinical Labs Prepared for What Is to Come?

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

IT IS TIMELY TO ASK THE QUESTION, “Are the nation’s clinical laboratories prepared to deal with the multiple challenges already visible in the healthcare marketplace today?” What leads me to ask this question is the unexpected number of deals involving the hospital lab outreach programs announced since the start of the year. Certainly the sale

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LabCorp, Quest, Sonic Do Hospital Lab Deals

Laboratory Management / Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: Is the New Year’s spate of deals involving the sales of hospital lab outreach programs and a new joint venture the first tremors of an impending earthquake of similar transactions? In the first 10 weeks of 2017, Laboratory Corporation of America, Quest Diagnostics, and Sonic Healthcare announced significant agreements to purchase sizeable hospital

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Sale to LabCorp to End Most of PAML’s Lab JVs

Laboratory Management / Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: It will take several years to understand how the market for lab testing services will change in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, once Laboratory Corporation of America becomes the owner of PAML, based in Spokane, Wash. Price and financial terms of the sale were not disclosed. The announcement of the agreement also reported

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Sonic, Western Connecticut Health Network Announce New Laboratory Joint Venture

Laboratory Management / Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: To prepare for the transition from fee-for-service to value-based payment, Western Connecticut Health Network, a three-hospital health system, announced a laboratory joint venture with Sonic Healthcare. Benefits will include lower test costs, more competitive prices, and the ability to offer same-day turn-around in Western Connecticut. Another benefit is that physicians in towns WCHN

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Value-Based Care Is One Goal Of WHCN-Sonic Lab JV

Laboratory Management / Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: Announced last month, the new laboratory joint-venture partnership with Sonic Healthcare’s Sunrise Clinical Laboratories will allow WCHN to compete with other health systems and prepare to respond to health insurers’ requests that hospital systems offer lower rates in value-based payment models. WCHN has already seen payers shift to low-cost providers. For this reason,

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Health Insurers Want More Data On Clinical Utility of Molecular, Genetic Tests

Genetic Testing / Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: Genetic tests that lack two essentials are troublesome for the nation’s health insurers. Those essentials are clinical validity and clinical utility. During a recent webinar, two executives from major health insurers stressed the need for genetic testing labs to provide acceptable evidence that their genetic test is accurate and that it produces information

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Labs Ask: Does PAMA Statute Prevent Legal Challenges?

Laboratory Billing / Joseph Burns

SINCE MEDICARE OFFICIALS PUBLISHED the final rule for lab test market price reporting of private payer prices last year, clinical lab industry consultants and lawyers have raised serious criticisms of the rule. The critics recognized that CMS officials wrote a final rule for the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) that excluded from reporting large

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March 13, 2017 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News

Late Breaking Lab News / Robert Michel

There’s bad news for clinical labs and pathology groups that lack the capability of collecting copays, deductibles, and out-of-pocket payments from patients at time of service. As of October, 2016, four out of every 10 Americans under the age of 65 with health insurance had a high-deductible health plan. That means these patients are responsible

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