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

July 2018

Seismic Shift in Managed Care Contracting for Labs?

RECENTLY TWO OF THE NATION’S LARGEST HEALTH INSURERS abandoned a managed care contracting strategy that they adopted 11 years ago. Back in 2007, UnitedHealthcare and Aetna each were willing to grant exclusive national provider status to a single lab company in exchange for deeply-discounted lab best prices. (See TDRs, Oct. 16, 2006, Feb. 19, 2007, and …

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CMS Shows Its Hand in New Draft Rules for 2019

CEO SUMMARY: Publication of the draft Medicare Physician Fee Schedule on July 12 brought unwelcome news for the clinical lab industry, at least as it pertains to whether hospital lab outreach data should be included in the PAMA market study that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services must conduct. In the draft rule, …

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New Aetna, UHC Contracts Create Openings for Labs

CEO SUMMARY: New national lab contracts that LabCorp and Quest announced in May could disrupt the lab testing market in ways regional labs can exploit, experts said. Health plans entered these new contracts after realizing that the exclusive network contracts do not work, one lab consultant explained, adding that large national labs will compete with …

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Québec’s Laboratory Consolidation Plan Aims to Save $13.5M

CEO SUMMARY: In the Province of Québec, an ambitious project is under-way to consolidate the clinical laboratory testing of 123 laboratories into 11 centralized lab clusters. It is one of the largest lab consolidation projects nowhappening in the world. Among the goals of this project is to improve qualityand efficiency while incurring no additional costs. …

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Computer Hackers Attack LabCorp, Company Shuts Entire IT Network

FOR ALL CLINICAL LABORATORIES AND PATHOLOGISTS, the hacking problems Laboratory Corporation of America experienced earlier this month are a reminder that unwanted IT attacks are not a matter of if, but when. It is an accepted fact that labs and other medical providers are at higher risk of such attacks because computer hackers value patients’ …

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Quest, Sonic Issue Statements about Pap Test Issues in Ireland

PROBLEMS WITH CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING IN IRELAND continue to make headlines in the Irish newspapers and roil the Irish health system. Caught up in this story are two billion-dollar lab companies that performed cervical cancer screening under contract to the Irish Health Service. THE DARK REPORT provided its first coverage of these developments in its …

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July 30, 2018 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News

Clinical labs and physicians can soon say goodbye to “meaningful use.” Federal officials are proposing a significant change to the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive program for certified EHRs that has been in existence since 2011. In a press release issued last spring, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule. …

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CMS physician fee schedule: Will hospital labs be excluded again from PAMA price reporting?

CEO SUMMARY: Publication of the draft CMS Physician Fee Schedule on July 12 brought unwelcome news for the clinical lab industry, at least as it pertains to that perennial question: Should hospital lab outreach data be included in a PAMA market study? The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services must conduct a new market …

CMS physician fee schedule: Will hospital labs be excluded again from PAMA price reporting? Read More »

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Coming Soon to a Doctor’s Office Near You!

IT’S TIME FOR ALL CLINICAL LABS AND ANATOMIC PATHOLOGY GROUPS to pay closer attention to the advances in genetic medicine and precision medicine. Events are moving even faster than most experts have predicted. As you will read on pages 3-4, two innovative health networks are on the verge of offering sophisticated genetic tests to patients …

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More Primary Care Docs Will Offer Genetic Tests

CEO SUMMARY: This summer, both Geisinger Health and Sanford Health will introduce genetic tests designed specifically for use by primary care physicians in their daily practice. This is a significant milestone on the road to wider deployment of precision medicine services. In the case of Sanford Health, it plans to offer patients a $49 genetic …

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