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

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark

New Federal Anti-kickback Investigation

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

POTENTIAL ANTI-KICKBACK VIOLATIONS in ancillary clinical service arrangements between referring physicians and providers like radiologists and laboratories continue to attract the interest of federal healthcare investigators. Right now, it appears radiology is a primary target. Last week, the Wall Street Journal disclosed that federal health investigators issued warrants and subpoenas to University MRI & Diagnostic […]

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Using OIG Advisory Opinions to Level Playing Field

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

TWICE DURING THE PAST 12 MONTHS, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has issued a negative opinion on a marketplace arrangement between a laboratory company and a physician group. The most recent was OIG Advisory Opinion 05-08, released on June 13, 2005 and responding to a request to evaluate how a lab might reimburse

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Judicial Earthquake Shakes Canada’s Health System

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

IT’S BEEN CALLED A “BOMBSHELL SUPREME COURT RULING” by no less than the Wall Street Journal. On June 9, 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the province of Quebec cannot prevent individuals from purchasing private health insurance policies for healthcare procedures covered under the Canadian health plan, called medicare. The case started in

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Laboratories Lead Healthcare on Quality Systems

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

IS THE REST OF HEALTHCARE CATCHING UP TO THE LABORATORY INDUSTRY when it comes to the use of quality management systems like ISO-9000, Six Sigma, and Lean? In the May 2, 2005 issue of Modern Healthcare, there’s a major story on quality management systems and how some hospitals are using same to drive major improvements

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International Tempest in Lab Industry Teapot

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

MAYBE ALL OF US IN THE LABORATORY PROFESSION GOT A GOOD LESSON in the deficiencies of the national and international media during the past month. I am referring to the screaming headlines last month about how four laboratory proficiency testing (PT) programs sent 4,000 laboratories virology PT kits with live H2N2 influenza virus. (See pages

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More Crime, More Consolidation, and a New Threat

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

IT’S A SHAME THAT OUR LEAD STORY IN THIS ISSUE IS CRIMINAL INDICTMENTS of six former IMPATH executives. It is a black mark on the lab industry and is just one more factor that makes it tougher for honest laboratorians to successfully lobby Congress on adequate funding for laboratory testing services. Our follow-up story to

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Is Your Lab at Risk from Patient Identity Theft?

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

REMEMBER THE CASE OF THE PHLEBOTOMIST in San Francisco who was discovered reusing butterfly needles? This incident revealed how vulnerable a laboratory—and its public reputation for integrity—is to actions by a rogue or renegade employee. That was back in 1999. A phlebotomist working for SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories (SBCL) was found to be washing and

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“Lowest-Priced” Chickens Came Home to Roost

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

IN READING THE INTELLIGENCE BRIEFINGS on reference/esoteric laboratories in this issue, I found it interesting that American Medical Laboratories (AML) is no longer an independent lab company serving this market segment and that, of the four remaining independent lab companies focused exclusively on reference and esoteric testing, the only firm not operating in the black

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“Frankenstein the Tumor” is No More

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

HOW MANY OF YOU HEARD ABOUT THE TUMOR NAMED “FRANKENSTEIN”? This is a story which made national news in mid-January and again in early February. The story line is simple. A nine-year old boy in Richmond, Virginia was diagnosed in May 2003 with embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma. A grapefruit-sized tumor was impinging on his optic nerves and

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Hey! We Are Halfway Through the 2000’s

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

WITHOUT SPLITTING HAIRS ABOUT WHETHER THE NEW MILLENNIUM started on January 1, 2000 or January 1, 2001 (although official millennium celebrations heavily favored the former date), I would like to call your attention to an important fact: 2005 is the half-way point in the current decade. Look what has changed since 2000. No longer do

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