April 2020

Companies Saw Big Drop in Lab Revenue from Mid-March

This is an excerpt of a 2,083-word article in the April 20, 2020 issue of THE DARK REPORT (TDR). The full article is available to members of The Dark Intelligence Group. CEO SUMMARY: In response to the coronavirus outbreak, patients stopped seeing their doctors for routine care and hospitals ceased doing elective services. With fewer test referrals, clinical […]

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Clinical Labs Step Up, But Serious Problems Are Ahead

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

ACROSS THE UNITED STATES, CLINICAL LABORATORIES ARE LIVING a good news/bad news story. The good news is that the essential role every lab plays in enabling fast, accurate diagnoses is now at the top of the news cycle. Daily, citizens of this country hear from the President and health officials that it’s a clinical laboratory test for SARS-CoV-2 which

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Lab, Path Finances Crash; Next Test Wave: Serology

Clinical Laboratory Trends / Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: For clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups, the day-by-day impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is unfolding much like Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans in 2005. Every 24 hours, labs get unwelcome news, along with uncertainty about whether it will get worse before it gets better. As of today, labs are watching their daily cash flow fall below operating costs,

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From Mid-March, Labs Saw Big Drop in Revenue

Clinical Laboratory Trends / Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: In response to the coronavirus outbreak, patients stopped seeing their doctors for routine care and hospitals ceased doing elective services. With fewer test referrals, clinical labs and pathology groups were hit with a substantial decline in revenue. One of the nation’s largest revenue cycle managers serving labs reported that—over the four weeks beginning in the second week of March—revenue

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Labs May Qualify for Relief Under New Federal Laws

Clinical Laboratory Trends / Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: After routine testing and specimen volume declined last month, so too did the associated revenue. In response, clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups want to bolster their finances quickly or risk incurring more financial damage to already-fragile balance sheets. Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and other stimulus plans from Congress, labs and pathology groups may

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Italy’s SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak Brings Out Best in Clinical Labs

Clinical Laboratory / Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: Italy was one of the first countries outside of China to experience an explosive outbreak of COVID-19 and its northern provinces were hit hardest by this novel coronavirus. In this exclusive interview with THE DARK REPORT, internationally-known pathologist Mario Plebani, MD, discusses how his clinical laboratory in Padova responded to the pandemic in the Veneto Region. Second of

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DOJ Says Georgia Man Got Kickbacks for COVID-19 Tests

Laboratory Compliance / Joseph Burns

JUST WEEKS AFTER THE FIRST CASES OF SARS-CoV-2 appeared in the United States, federal prosecutors filed criminal charges in a COVID-19 lab test fraud scheme. Erik Santos, 49, of Braselton, Ga., was charged with conspiracy to defraud federal and private healthcare programs by submitting fraudulent testing claims for COVID-19 and genetic cancer screenings. This may be a sign that federal healthcare investigators will

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Chicago Lab Launches LDT, Finds 20% Positive

Clinical Laboratory / Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: After seeing the novel coronavirus spread quickly in China, staff in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine developed a test to identify the pathogen in patients in Chicago and its suburbs. With the CDC’s assay in hand, it started work on its own lab-developed test. In early April, the lab tested more than 10,000 patients and approximately 20%

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APRIL 20, 2020 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News

Late Breaking Lab News / Robert Michel

Not only did the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States show how unprepared the nation was for an event like this, but it exposed numerous problems and weaknesses in the federal agencies tasked with protecting the health and safety of the American public. One high-profile failure happened when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shipped defective COVID-19 test kits to public health laboratories in early February. It

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At the Epicenter, Northwell’s COVID-19 Lab Data Adds Value

Laboratory Management / Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: This intelligence briefing provides a valuable look inside a clinical laboratory that is at ground zero in a city and state that is experiencing the nation’s most intense and fastest-moving incidence of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus. Lab leadership granted The Dark Report access to its strategies and how it supports health system administrators, physicians and patients, and state andlocal health

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