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

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark

Era of Digitized Pathology Systems Approaches

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

SURGICAL PATHOLOGISTS SHOULD GET READY! I predict that they will soon have the opportunity to purchase and use fully digital, automated pathology systems that can perform primary diagnosis. When that happens, it will mark the final cycle of the era when the principal method of diagnosing tissue was that of eyeballs fixed to microscopes, scanning […]

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Customer-Focused Labs Are Successful

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

AS YOU READ THIS ISSUE, YOU WILL BE AMONG THE FIRST in the laboratory industry to learn that more than 50% of the nation’s hospitals are financially deficient and “technically insolvent or at risk of insolvency.” That’s according to Alvarez & Marsal of New York City, which analyzed the financial performance of 3,900 hospitals and

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Battles Continue Over Doctor Mark Up of Lab Tests

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

FROM THE SHADOWS OF A PARKING GARAGE, Deep Throat suggests to reporter Bob Woodward, “Follow the money.” In this scene from the movie, All the President’s Men, Woodward gets the right advice he needs from an unnamed source to pursue the Watergate case, a huge political scandal of the 1970s. “Follow the money” is also

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Courts Uphold Labs’ Challenges on CMS’ Rules

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

SINCE MARCH 31, THE FEDERAL CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES (CMS) has lost two decisions in two different U.S. district courts. Though each case addressed fundamentally different issues, the rulings were remarkably similar. In both cases, the courts questioned CMS’ failure to properly use federal procedures. We provide analysis on both cases in this

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Heparin, China, Reagents, and Your Lab

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

MANY OF YOU HAVE HEARD THE NEWS about the contaminant that was found in the heparin manufactured and sold by Baxter International, Inc. Authorities, responding last fall to reports of hundreds of bad reactions and 19 deaths to the drug, quickly focused on the Chinese companies that supplied the ingredients used by Baxter to manufacture

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Citizens Taking on the Government

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

IT WAS P.J. O’ROURKE WHO SAID THAT “giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” I think of that quote when I ponder the Medicare Laboratory Competitive Demonstration Project and the twisted reasoning of the faceless bureaucrats at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) who

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Creative Destruction in Anatomic Pathology

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

PATHOLOGISTS MAY BE FAMILIAR with the economic theory of “creative destruction.” They are aware of how “creative destruction” is at work transforming and reshaping both the anatomic pathology marketplace and the clinical lab testing marketplace. Economist Joseph Schumpeter first used the term in his 1942 book Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. He described how constant innovation

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“Here’s to Plain Talk and Clear Understanding!”

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

“WELL, SIR, HERE’S TO PLAIN TALK AND CLEAR UNDERSTANDING.” That’s a well-known line in the classic 1941 detective movie, “The Maltese Falcon.” It’s spoken by the Kasper Gutman character, played by Sidney Greenstreet, to San Francisco private eye, Sam Spade, played by Humphrey Bogart. Gutman thinks Spade has the priceless Maltese Falcon statue and he

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Is CMS Playing “Bait and Switch” in San Diego?

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

ATTEMPTING TO WRITE THE ASSESSMENT of the Medicare Clinical Lab Services Competitive Demonstration Project that you will read in this issue earned a unique distinction: since our founding in 1995, this has been the single most difficult story we have ever tried to explain to our clients and regular readers. At the same time, it is

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Building the Better Mousetrap for Lab Outreach

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

IS THERE A BLUEPRINT for building a thriving, successful hospital outreach program in a new market? If so, it would certainly be a best seller among hospitals seeking new sources of revenues and profits from outreach testing. While it’s not exactly a blueprint, Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories (PAML) of Spokane, Washington, has developed both a unique strategy and

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