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

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark

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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Government Health Contracting Has a Seamy Side

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

WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN TO YOUR LABORATORY if either or both Medicare and your state’s Medicaid program initiated some type of competitive bidding for laboratory testing services? I’ll bet there would be a level of financial pain, not to mention the consequences to physicians and patients as long-standing laboratory relationships were changed in favor of the

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TennCare’s Collapse and Its Lessons for Labs

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

HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE HEARD ABOUT THE IMPENDING COLLAPSE of TennCare, the radical Medicaid experiment launched by Tennessee in 1994? It now consumes one-third of the Tennessee state budget and Governor Phil Bredesen announced that the program will probably be ended. It is likely that Tennessee will reinstate a standard Medicaid program. I believe

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Medicare’s New Policy May Help Labs

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

ONCE AGAIN, THE DARK REPORT IS FIRST TO ALERT YOU to a significant development in the laboratory testing marketplace. I am referring to a new and evolving Medicare policy which calls for the agency to reimburse for expensive new medical treatments and diagnostic tests. As you will read on pages 14-15, this policy has two

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Facing Down the Lab Assay Patent Monster

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

PATENT ROYALTIES FOR HOMOCYSTEINE TESTING are the subject of our lead story in this issue. (See pages 2-4.) It provides an early example of how patent-protected diagnostic tests can create budget-busting problems for hospital laboratories which perform those tests. The spectre of crushing royalty payments on a host of patent-protected diagnostic assays has loomed large

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