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

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark

Cement Shortage, Oil Prices, and U.S. Healthcare

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

TODAY I AM GOING TO CONNECT CEMENT SHORTAGES and spiraling oil prices to intractable problems in our healthcare system. It’s a way for me to show you an example of how globalization’s impact to non-healthcare businesses can similarly affect the American healthcare system. Climbing gasoline prices, now above $2.00 per gallon in many regions of […]

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Preparing for the Medicare-Medicaid Buzz Saw

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

MEDICAID PROGRAMS IN TWO STATES ARE CURRENTLY TARGETING laboratory testing services as a source of cost savings. It’s not coincidental that the states involved are Florida and California. During the past 15 years, both states have stayed at the cutting edge of managed healthcare. Many “innovations” (read: a way to pay providers less for the

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New Blood and Old Issues

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

IT’S YET TO MAKE A FLOURISH, but American Esoteric Laboratories, Inc. is now funded, open for business, and has $70 million to use in pursuing its business goals. Even as this new laboratory company makes its debut, an old issue continues to gnaw at the laboratory industry: competitive bidding. Medicare continues to move towards its

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Arguing in Favor of Regional Laboratory Networks

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

TWO STORIES IN THIS ISSUE OF THE DARK REPORT DEMONSTRATE why regional laboratory networks are a business model which should be revisited by hospital laboratories with outreach programs. Seattle provides a great example of how an existing laboratory network gives hospitals in that region an additional business option. PACLAB, an eight-hospital laboratory network, has steadily grown

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Oncology Diagnostics Attracts Big Money

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

MORE SURPRISING DEVELOPMENTS for the anatomic pathology profession during the past three weeks! The impending $215 million acquisition of IMPATH, Inc. by Genzyme Corporation, announced on March 1, has the potential to send new ripples across the national market for oncology testing. What makes the Genzyme–IMPATH combination particularly fascinating was the $1 billion Genzyme paid, just

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Diversifying Lab Management’s “Gene Pool” of Methods

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

I ENCOURAGE OUR CLIENTS AND REGULAR READERS to give careful thought to the intelligence findings provided by our editor about the unfolding laboratory joint venture in Cincinnati between LabOne, Inc. and The Health Alliance. (See here and here.) He contends that LabOne will bring additional management skills and experience to this established multi-hospital laboratory venture. Those

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When Laboratory Vendors Go Bankrupt

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / Robert Michel

BANKRUPTCY AMONG VENDORS AND SUPPLIERS in the laboratory industry is an uncommon event. Since it is so rare, that is one less issue about which laboratory directors and pathologists must worry. However, occasionally there are reminders that it is good management practice to track the financial stability of your laboratory’s primary vendors and suppliers. One such

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Is Healthcare Undergoing a Fundamental Shift?

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / Robert Michel

ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT RESPONSIBILITIES in laboratory management is deciding when to implement substantial change. Pathologists and lab administrators correctly understand that there are risks for acting too soon or too late when responding to changes in the healthcare marketplace. That’s why this year’s list of key trends in anatomic pathology is particularly interesting. Collectively,

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Welcome Back, Consumers!

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / Robert Michel

DURING 2003, THERE WAS SURPRISING PROGRESS IN THE MOVEMENT to improve patient safety. Closely-connected to the patient safety trend are efforts to measure and make public the healthcare outcomes achieved by hospitals, physicians, laboratories, and other providers. One reason why this movement is important is that it begins the process of restoring the consumer as

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ABNs, Client Billing, “Free Testing? & Medicare Rules

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

BY ANY MEASURE, ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS by the Office of the Investigator General (OIG) for Medicare fraud and abuse within the laboratory testing industry was a big story during the 1990s. I wonder if we might not be at a crossroads that could take our profession down a similar path in this decade. There are interesting

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