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

October 2017

New source of lab test abuse surfaces in the form of HOPDs and MSOs

This is an excerpt from a 2,350-word article in the Oct. 30, 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: Growing numbers of hospitals are being asked to enter into …

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October 30, 2017 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News

In a development that has implications for medical laboratories in developed nations, healthcare organizations in Africa have launched a “landmark electronic referral project” to digitally track workers who travel to South Africa to work in the mining industry. The project is being administered by TIMS (TB in the Mining Sector in South Africa). This digital medical …

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Finally, Abbott Buys Alere to Become #1 in POCT

CEO SUMMARY: After nearly two years of legal battles, Abbott Laboratories’ acquisition of Alere concluded on Oct. 3. Despite antitrust requirements to divest several of Alere’s diagnostic businesses to Quidel and Siemens Healthineers, the merger makes Abbott the world’s largest provider of point-of-care testing systems. Hospitals and clinical laboratories buying POC products from Abbott and …

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Some Labs Performing ADLTs May See Increased Medicare Fees

MIXED IN THE BAD NEWS concerning the proposed Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule for 2018, there is some good news regarding what the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposes to pay for certain advanced diagnostic tests. After analyzing the proposed fee schedule, Quorum Consulting of San Francisco, reported, as other analysts have concluded, that …

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Lab Scheme Recruits Hospitals To Bill as In-Network Providers

CEO SUMMARY: Management companies using a new generation of potentially fraudulent schemes are targeting hospitals and health systems for arrangements that use questionable means to increase lab test volume and revenue. The management companies often use the term “hospital outpatient department (HOPD) billing model” to describe these arrangements. The scammers want the hospitals, as in-network …

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LabCorp, Quest Open PSCs in Retail Stores

CEO SUMMARY: In the past year, both national laboratory companies have increased the number of patient service centers they operate in retail pharmacies and grocery stores. But these PSCs are not serving direct access testing (DAT) customers. Rather, early evidence indicates that patients are finding it more convenient to go to their nearby grocery stores …

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Labs Begin Applying Lean to Cut Costs, Add Value

CEO SUMMARY: In more than 40 presentations by 55 speakers, two big themes dominated the 11th annual Lab Quality Confab in New Orleans last week. One theme is the urgent need to cut clinical laboratory costs. The second theme is the need for both clinical labs and anatomic pathology groups to deliver more value to …

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To Add Value, Focus on Patient Care

FOR THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS, and particularly since Congress passed the Patient Access to Medicare Act in 2014, clinical labs have focused on controlling costs, as they should. After all, PAMA calls for steep cuts in what the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will pay clinical labs beginning Jan. 1, 2018. (See TDRs, …

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Looming CMS lab fee schedule cuts unite AMA, AHA and labs in opposition

This is an excerpt from a 1,237-word article in the Oct. 8, 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: In what may be a first for the clinical lab …

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