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Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark

Helping Labs with Cash Flow, COVID-19 Response

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark, Laboratory Compliance /

ROUTINE SPECIMEN VOLUME REMAINS DOWN by 50% or more for clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups in the United States because of the pandemic. Through the end of last week, The Dark Report estimates that labs in the U.S. have lost almost $7 billion since the first week of March. That’s when patients stopped visiting their doctors and […]

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Clinical Labs Step Up, But Serious Problems Are Ahead

Commentary and Opinion by 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 at the Epicenter of NY’s Coronavirus Pandemic

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark /

TODAY, THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC DOMINATES the daily activities of every clinical laboratory in the United States. The emergence of COVID-19 has triggered unprecedented actions by governments in different nations throughout the world. Within this country, all 50 states reported SARS-CoV-2 infections. But it is New York State that was hit hardest early in this pandemic. Until recent

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Be Careful Payers, You May Get What You Wish For!

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark /

Few clinical laboratory executives and pathologists would disagree with the assertion that both government and private payers would like to see the prices they pay for medical laboratory testing and the amount of money they spend reimbursing labs to stay flat or shrink from one year to the next. Certainly the actions taken by Medicare

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Northwell and Memorial Health: A Tale of Two Labs

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark /

Something very unusual happened in  this  issue  of  The  Dark  Report. We analyzed the entirely opposite fates of two clinical laboratories owned by different healthcare systems. With apologies to author Charles Dickens and his opening sentence in his novel, a Tale of Two Cities, it can be said that, “for one lab, it was the

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Any Hope for Relief from PAMA Medicare Price Cuts?

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark /

It is a notable and rare success for the clinical laboratory profession to convince the House and Senate to pass a law that is favorable to the interests of patients and the clinical laboratories that serve them. Yet that is what happened when Congress passed the Laboratory Access for Beneficiaries (LAB) Act in December and

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Labs Face New Challenges in New Year, New Decade

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark /

TYPICALLY, PEOPLE CELEBRATE THE ARRIVAL OF A NEW YEAR and a new decade with optimism. That should be just as true for clinical lab managers and pathologists. After all, medical laboratory testing is fundamental to how physicians diagnose disease, select the most appropriate therapies, and monitor the progress of their patients. Yet events of recent

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Prediction of ICD-10 as Negative for Labs Comes True

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark /

IMPLEMENTATION OF ICD-10 DIAGNOSIS CODES in the United States happened on Oct. 1, 2015. At that time, a national laboratory association predicted that use of ICD-10 codes would cause Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) to pay labs less often and with lower reimbursement. The Dark Report agreed with this prediction and published the warnings of the American

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Is New Medicare Affiliation Rule Good, Bad, or Ugly?

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark /

THERE IS AN OFT-REPEATED ADAGE THAT what the government gives you with one hand, it takes away with the other. This may be an apt description of the new Medicare final rule that takes effect today, called the Program Integrity Enhancements to the Provider Enrollment Process (CMS-6058-FC). The goal of the new rule is to

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Is New Medicare Affiliation Rule Good, Bad, or Ugly? Read More »

Are Feds Now More Serious about Prosecuting Fraud?

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark /

IS IT A COINCIDENCE THAT, IN THIS ISSUE OF THE DARK REPORT, we cover two related developments, both involving the federal government’s efforts to control healthcare fraud and abuse? First, you’ll read about the new federal rule scheduled to take effect on Nov. 4. It gives federal healthcare investigators new powers to exclude individuals and

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Are Feds Now More Serious about Prosecuting Fraud? Read More »

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