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

Late Breaking Lab News / R. Lewis Dark

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

Laboratory Management / Jon Stone

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

Laboratory Billing / Joseph Burns

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

Laboratory Compliance / Joseph Burns

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

Clinical Laboratory Trends / Joseph Burns

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

Laboratory Management / Joseph Burns

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

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

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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XIFIN CEO WHITE ANALYZES MEDICARE 2018 FEE CUTS

The Dark Report / R. Lewis Dark

CEO SUMMARY: If the draft lab rates that CMS published Sept. 22 for the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule for 2018 go into effect Jan. 1 as proposed, then clinical labs will see a cut of 28% in what they get paid for the top 20 most common tests, according to a recent analysis. The rates

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

TDR Insider / Mary Van Doren

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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