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

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark

Road Map to Most Pressing Trends In Healthcare

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

YOU SHOULD FIND THIS ISSUE OF THE DARK REPORT TO BE A USEFUL ROAD MAP to several of the major trends now confronting clinical labs and pathology groups across the United States. One trend involves payer efforts to control the cost of lab tests. A second trend centers upon accountable care organizations (ACO) and the […]

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Delivering Added Value = More Lab Reimbursement

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / Robert Michel

WILL HISTORY LOOK BACK ON 2013 AND DECLARE IT to have been a watershed year for the clinical laboratory testing industry? I ask that question because many of you are telling us here at THE DARK REPORT that you expect rapid and unprecedented changes in the lab testing marketplace in your community or region. In

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Finding Lab Growth Opportunities Amid the Gloom

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

IN MANY WAYS, THE TRADITIONAL BUSINESS MODELS for laboratory testing services are proving deficient in the face of a swiftly-evolving healthcare system. I suspect that none of us fully understand how many laboratory organizations are already under extreme financial stress. We intuitively understand that, somewhere out in the healthcare marketplace, clever and innovative pathologists are

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PAML, Pathology and New Opportunities

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

BY ANY MEASURE, MAJOR CHANGES ARE COMING to the profession of laboratory medicine. I assume that you are familiar with most of the trends, healthcare reforms, and significant reductions in lab test reimbursement that appear regularly in the headlines. Many of these developments are unfavorable to the status quo in today’s lab testing marketplace. At

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Of 88305-TC and Other Bad News for Pathology Labs

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

BY NOW, VIRTUALLY ALL PATHOLOGISTS ARE AWARE of the announced cut in Medicare reimbursement for the technical component (TC) of CPT 88305. Effective on January 1, 2012, Medicare will pay 52% less for this CPT code. From the prior level of $69.78, the new reimbursement will be $33.70. As news of this development rippled across

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Rural Hospital Labs and their Lab Directors

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

FROM TWO DIFFERENT STATES, WE PRESENT INTELLIGENCE BRIEFINGS that have a common element: laboratories in many rural hospitals are struggling. We consider these stories, when taken together, to be persuasive evidence that some significant number of rural hospital laboratories are experiencing ongoing erosion of their financial stability. First, you will read about the closure of

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IOM Endorses Continuous Improvement, Lean

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

IT IS ONE OF THE IRONIES OF HEALTHCARE that it has taken the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM) more than three decades to fully recognize the necessary and essential role that continuous improvement and the associated disciplines of Lean, Six Sigma, and process improvement must play if the American healthcare system is to meet the

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In Medicare Bull’s Eye: Lab Test Reimbursement

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

YOU CAN CONSIDER THIS ISSUE OF THE DARK REPORT TO BE an early warning of the escalating effort by public and private payers to rein in the “soaring cost” of clinical laboratory testing and anatomic pathology services. The intelligence briefings you will read on the following pages address important topics, specifically: 1) a new Medicare

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Damon Laboratories, Mitt Romney, and Politics

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

IT IS SELDOM THAT THE CLINICAL LABORATORY INDUSTRY HITS THE RADAR SCREEN during a presidential election. So it is with some interest that I report to you that Mitt Romney recently touted the lessons he learned while serving on the board of Damon Clinical Laboratories, Inc., as useful for guiding the nation. Romney, now the

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Time for Congress to Properly Fix CLIA PT Issue

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

THIS TIME, THE PROVERBIAL CAT MAY BE OUT OF THE BAG when it comes to long-standing dissatisfaction with how federal regulators interpret and enforce CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) regulations as they relate to inadvertent errors in the referral of proficiency tests (PT). For many in the clinical laboratory profession, this issue of THE DARK

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