Clinical Laboratory Trends
Clinical laboratories, where tests are done on clinical specimens in order to get information about the health of a patient as pertaining to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, are facing numerous challenging trends as healthcare reform continues to evolve.
Some of these clinical laboratory trends include:
- The Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) of 2014.
Under PAMA, many clinical lab organizations will see a substantial decline over the coming years in the prices paid to them for the highest-volume lab tests reimbursed under Medicare Part B. The law specifies that the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) can begin enacting those price cuts in 2017.
- Laboratory benefit management program
The laboratory benefit management program is a controversial program created by UnitedHealthcare in 2014. All outpatient laboratory services for members who are part of the Laboratory Benefit Management Program are subject to new requirements including advance notification and new medical policies.
Physicians serving UHC’s commercial patients in Florida must notify UHC when ordering any of 80 clinical laboratory tests. Pre-authorization is also required for certain tests.
During its introduction phase, the program has generated widespread resistance from Florida physicians, who protest that it will cause unnecessary delays for patient treatment, and undue burdens for doctors ordering tests. In addition to problems with lab test pre-notification algorithms within the BeaconLBS system, other problems cited by physicians include the exclusion of all but 13 Florida labs from the BeaconLBS “laboratory of choice network.”
- Accountable care organizations
ACOs are the product of a provision in the Affordable Care Act of 2010. They are integrated care networks of providers with the ability to provide care to, and manage patients, across the continuum of care that should include different institutional settings, such as ambulatory care, inpatient hospital care, and even post-acute care. Clinical labs have had difficulty gaining entry into newly- forming ACOs.
At the same time, a positive clinical laboratory trend is the increasing popularity of personalized medicine (PM), a medical model that proposes the customization of healthcare – with medical decisions, practices, and/or products being tailored to the individual patient. In this model, diagnostic testing is critically important, as it is often employed for selecting appropriate and optimal therapies based on the context of a patient’s genetic content or other molecular or cellular analysis.
IVD and Lab Consolidation Reduces Choices for Labs
CEO SUMMARY: Since the launch of The Dark Report in 1995, consolidation of hospitals, physician groups, clinical labs, pathology groups, and IVD manufacturers has been a major trend every year. Toda…
Lab Data Crucial to Insurer Risk Adjustment Models
CEO SUMMARY: Payers who use risk adjustment models as part of Medicare Advantage need diagnostic data that helps them document ICD-10 diagnoses that earn them higher premium payments for sicker pat…
Big Employers Sue Payers over Price Transparency
CEO SUMMARY: Feeling they’ve been denied access by insurance companies to price data about medical claim payments, self-funded employer plans and unions are taking their health insurance companies…
Lab News Briefs: Labcorp, Tufts, Informa, HIMSS, Sanford, Fairview
Labcorp Buys Tufts’ Lab Outreach IN OUR LAST ISSUE, WE REPORTED THAT LABCORP HAD ACQUIRED the lab outreach services of two health systems in…
Hospital Lab Outreach Selloffs Continue with Labcorp as Buyer
OVER THE LAST FEW MONTHS, Labcorp has shaken up the hospital laboratory market in the Pacific Northwest, particularly as it concerns lab outreach services. …
HCCI Reports Higher Prices for Hospital Outreach Tests
CEO SUMMARY: It’s another shot across the bows to hospital and health systems that use inpatient test prices when billing health insurers for outpatient/outreach lab tests. In its report, the Health Care Cost Institute documents how these hospital l…
Dartmouth Health Lab Recruits and Trains More CLSs
CEO SUMMARY: Keeping clinical laboratories fully staffed may be the single biggest issue confronting labs today. In New Hampshire, the lab team at Dartmouth Health crafted an innovative program that pays students as they pursue their clinical laboratory scientist certification. In…
Technical Assessment Challenges for Z-Code Applications
CEO SUMMARY: Effective on Aug. 1, UnitedHealthcare will require Z-code submissions for many genetic tests. During a recent webinar, experts tackled a topic that may prove troublesome for labs seeking Z-codes: technical assessments. Key advice is to provide specific data about clin…
UnitedHealthcare’s Z-code Policy Starts on Aug. 1
CEO SUMMARY: UnitedHealthcare’s (UHC) response to the ever-growing number of unique genetic tests and the continuing growth in the volume of those claims is a new policy. Effective Aug. 1, UHC will require a Z-code with genetic test claims. This req…
CMS: TJC Made ‘Business Decision’ to Not Recognize COLA
Following up on a prior briefing, The Dark Report has learned that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) does not appear to hav…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXX, No. 13 – September 11, 2023
Recent court rulings involving the No Surprises Act are putting the government on the defensive about provisions of the law. Also, the continued consolidation of the IVD and national laboratory company markets has brought more influence to those lab companies. In addition, learn how clinical labs can earn money from their diagnostic data by helping private insurers navigate Medicare Advantage’s risk adjustment model.
See the full table of contentsHow Much Laboratory Business Intelligence Have You Missed?
Lab leaders rely on THE DARK REPORT for actionable intelligence on important developments in the business of laboratory testing. Maximize the money you make-and the money you keep! Best of all, it is released every three weeks!
Sign up for TDR Insider
Join the Dark Intelligence Group FREE and get TDR Insider FREE!
Never miss a single update on the issues that matter to you and your business.
The Dark Report • 21806 Briarcliff Dr • Spicewood, TX 78669
Phone: 512-264-7103 • Toll Free Number: 800-560-6363
Email: customerservice@darkintelligencegroup.com
© 2022 The Dark Report. All rights reserved.