Joseph Burns
Joseph Burns is the senior editor of The Dark Report. An independent journalist in Falmouth, Mass., Burns has covered health care since 1991 and clinical laboratories since 2004. He writes for a variety of publications, including Managed Care magazine (where he is a contributing editor), Hospitals & Health Networks, and Healthcare Finance News. In addition, he is the insurance topic leader for the Association of Health Care Journalists and has worked as a writer and editor for The Commonwealth Fund, the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute, the National Business Coalition on Health, the National Committee for Quality Assurance, and the National Quality Forum. Burns has edited books on health care business strategies for Faulkner & Gray and Panel Publishers and was editor-in-chief of Business & Health magazine, formerly published by Medical Economics Co., and later was a contributing editor and columnist for Managed Healthcare Executive magazine. He began his career as a journalist in Connecticut, working as a newspaper reporter for The Wallingford Post and the Meriden Record-Journal and as a copy editor, reporter, and regional news editor for The Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest newspaper. While working for The Courant, he taught news writing at the University of Connecticut.
Articles by Joseph Burns
FDA Replaces March 16 Serology COVID-19 Rules
CEO SUMMARY: In the rush to allow companies and clinical laboratories to develop, validate, and bring to market serological tests for COVID-19, the federal Food and Drug Administration issued rules on March 16 that eased its requirements for these new assays. Because of the la…
Expert Offers Comments on FDA and Revised Serology Test Rules
CLINICAL LABORATORY DIRECTORS are asking what caused the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue a highly questionable policy in March to allow serological tests for SARS-CoV-2 and then change that policy seven weeks later. Under a policy the agency issued March…
New Lab Revenue Source: COVID-19 Worker Screening
CLINICAL LABORATORIES have a new revenue-generating opportunity, as some states relax stay-at-home rules: Many employers are likely to seek COVID-19 screening tests for employees returning to work to detect the presence of the new coronavirus. This new source of lab specimens and revenue gi…
California Research Team Analyzes Performance of 12 Serology Tests
CEO SUMMARY: Researchers with the COVID-19 Testing Project used a multidisciplinary effort to analyze and compare the performance of 12 serological tests. One finding is that, 16 to 20 days or more after a confirmed infection with a molecular test, many of the 12 serological te…
To Stay Afloat, Dallas AP Group Cut Staff, Payroll
CEO SUMMARY: As early cases of COVID-19 spread in some states, pathologists at the 50-member ProPath group in Dallas prepared for a widespread outbreak by preserving cash and working with bankers and other advisors to apply for federal stimulus funding. Executives also fur…
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 c…
From Mid-March, Labs Saw Big Drop in Revenue
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 t…
Labs May Qualify for Relief Under New Federal Laws
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…
Italy’s SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak Brings Out Best in Clinical Labs
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,…
DOJ Says Georgia Man Got Kickbacks for COVID-19 Tests
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 fraudule…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 6 – April 21, 2025
Now that a federal judge has vacated the FDA’s LDT rule, The Dark Report analyzes the judgement and notes the various steps the FDA could take in response. Also, lab testing at pharmacies is proving to be less successful than was once anticipated.
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