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

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark

Like Lab Medicine, THE DARK REPORT is Changing

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

ANY PATHOLOGIST OR LABORATORY ADMINISTRATOR who believes there is a status quo in laboratory medicine is ignoring plenty of evidence to the contrary in the healthcare marketplace. Radical evolution is altering the health insurance industry, for the second time in almost 20 years. The Internet and new technologies in computer hardware and software enable the […]

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Feds Lift Ban on Doctor-Owned Specialty Hospitals

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

MANY OF YOU KNOW THAT on August 8 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it would resume issuing certificates for specialty hospitals that are owned by physicians. The timing of this decision certainly plays into the predictions of McKinsey & Co. that you will read on pages 9-15 in this issue

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Medicare’s Lab Competitive Bidding Demonstration

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

EVERYONE SHOULD MARK JANUARY 1, 2007 ON THEIR CALENDARS. On that date, just 14 weeks from now, Medicare administrators intend to announce which laboratory bidders will be allowed to provide lab testing services in the laboratory competitive bidding demonstration that was mandated by the 2003 Medicare bill. Never mind that officials at the Centers for

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Lab Whistleblowers Are an Ever-Present Threat

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

EVERY PATHOLOGIST, LAB MANAGER, AND INDUSTRY EXECUTIVE has a justified fear of whistleblowers in their laboratory or company. Whistleblowers can surface at the most unexpected moment and with the most devastating consequences. As you will read in this issue of THE DARK REPORT, criminal actions against ex-employees of both UroCor, Inc. and Impath, Inc. were

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Pathology Clients Now Competing Against Pathologists

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

THIS ENTIRE ISSUE IS DEVOTED TO A SINGLE TOPIC: the exploding interest by specialist physicians in establishing their own in-practice ancillary service in anatomic pathology (AP). Once again, THE DARK REPORT is first to provide the pathology profession with a concise and insightful assessment of a disruptive trend. I use the word “disruptive” for good

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Turning Up the Heat in California

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

FOR THE PAST TWO DECADES, CALIFORNIA HAS BEEN A PACE SETTER in healthcare and the clinical laboratory industry. Events in recent weeks seem to indicate that California will continue to move ahead of other regions in developments that influence the clinical laboratory industry. First, there is the impending birth of a new laboratory company in

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Money Pours into Clinical Diagnostics

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

THIS IS AN AMAZING ISSUE OF THE DARK REPORT! In the past four weeks, there’s been an unusual surge of corporate mergers and acquisitions. Individually, some are noteworthy, but collectively, the message is undeniable. A flood of money is currently flowing into clinical diagnostics and the laboratory industry. Look at this issue’s roll call: First

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Retrospective on Lab Automation in Japan

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

DO YOU REMEMBER BACK TO THE FIRST TIME YOU HEARD NEWS that national lab companies like MetPath, Inc. and SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories (SBCL) were going to install full automation into their laboratories? It was back in 1991-1993 when this talk began filtering across the laboratory industry. This was the start of TLA (total laboratory automation) as a competitive threat.

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Labs Poised to Add Value to Docs and Patients

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

CAREFULLY READ OUR COVERAGE AND ANALYSIS about cytochrome P450 (CYP450) testing on pages 2-9. CYP450 testing is likely to be one of the most important developments in laboratory medicine in the past two decades. I say that for two reasons. First, test panels designed to detect multiple polymorphisms in cytochrome P450 will allow physicians to

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Medicare To Publish Its Fees on the Web

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

IN A FEW WEEKS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will publish its reimbursement prices for common procedures on its Web site at www.medicare.gov. The objective is to allow consumers to see the fees Medicare currently pays to hospitals and physicians and allow uninsured patients to negotiate comparable discounts for services provided to them. This is

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