Laboratory Management
Laboratory management in today’s clinical lab industry is changing rapidly and facing entirely new challenges. One problem is the lack of upcoming younger lab managers, as the retirements of baby boomer pathologists, medical technologists and lab scientists are in the near future. These individuals make up the largest proportion of supervisors, managers, and lab administrators working in labs today.
As they retire, every clinical lab and pathology group needs to have the next generation of leaders ready to step up and assume responsibilities. But, across the lab industry, there are limited opportunities for every lab’s brightest up-and-comers to get the regular management development opportunities that are common among Fortune 500 companies. The Dark Intelligence Group has called for the establishment of a mentoring program to help overcome this problem.
At the same time, downward pressure on reimbursements and mounting competition have created an environment that requires much more effort for a medical lab to grow and thrive.
Legislation, including the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) of 2009 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010, have placed significant demands on medical laboratories and healthcare providers to improve internal efficiency even while offering more services for less money. This pressure to “do more with less” is further compounded by the need to deliver increasingly personalized client service to retain and win clients.
With the era of fee-for-service medicine coming to a close, every clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology organization needs a strategy for getting paid, as new reimbursement models that support patient-centric care will make up a larger portion of lab revenues.
The challenge for every clinical laboratory manager is to understand how to evolve from a business model that is accession-centric or volume-centric to one that is patient-centric.
Many clinical laboratories today are developing data repositories to logically link all transactional and other information about a patient. These repositories allow physicians to see all relevant information, identify trends, and provide better care as a result, enabling labs to provide greater value to their customers, patients and payers, thus creating more value and becoming more patient-centric.
Honolulu Lab Pursuing Pacific Rim Business
CEO SUMMARY: With one laboratory already operating in Guam, Diagnostic Laboratory Services, Inc. (DLS) is poised to expand its services in the Pacific Rim area. Now a major competitor within Hawaii, DLS sees the island archipelagos of the Pacific Ocean as a natural extension of its existi…
Independent California Lab Decides to Exit Business
CEO SUMMARY: Market forces in California continue to put independent laboratories under sustained financial stress. One laboratory owner decided it was an auspicious time to sell his lab. That sale, of POISONLAB to Laboratory Corporation of America, was announced earlier this month. There…
Bio-Reference Labs, CARESIDE, United Healthcare, MetLife, Foundation Health
BIO-REFERENCE LABS MOVES TO START PATIENT-DOCTOR MESSAGING ONE OF THE NATION’S MORE AGGRESSIVE efforts to refocus the clinical laboratory organization can be found at Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc., located in Elmwood Park, New Jersey. Bio-Reference wants to use its bas…
Academic Hospital Lab Raises Competitive Bar
CEO SUMMARY: Few academic center laboratories are as swift-moving as the UMASS Health System Laboratory. In the next 90 days, it will move into a brand new off-site core laboratory. During this same 90 days, it is implementing its first web-based laboratory test ordering and results repor…
WellPoint Health Networks Offers To Buy Aetna For $10.5 Billion
TAKING ADVANTAGE of a weak share price for Aetna, Inc., two major corporations sent an unsolicited tender offer to the Aetna board. The joint bid was submitted by WellPoint Health Insurance Networks Inc. of Thousand Oaks, California, and ING Group NV, a Dutch insura…
Park City Solutions, DIANON, IMPATH American Med Labs, Cytyc, TriPath Imaging
PARK CITY SOLUTIONS AND AMERICAN MEDICAL LABS CREATE STRATEGIC PACT TWO COMPANIES FINANCED by GTCR Golder Rauner, LLC, the private equity firm based in Chicago, announced a strategic relationship. Park City Solutions, Inc. of Park City, Utah and Ame…
Park City Solutions Acquires Chi Lab Systems of Ann Arbor
THERE’S A NEW PLAYER in healthcare and laboratory consulting. Park City Solutions, Inc. of Midway, Utah wants to become a recognized name in the lab industry. As one step toward this goal, it announced the purchase of Chi Laboratory Systems, Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mic…
NY Labs Achieve Repeal Of Onerous Surcharge
CEO SUMMARY: Clinical laboratories in the state of New York demonstrated that the lab industry can effectively influence legislation when the state legislature finally repealed the onerous laboratory test surcharge first enacted in 1997. Lab industry leaders should apply the lessons learn…
Epitope, LabOne, CARESIDE, Quest, Structural Bioinformatics, UroCor
EPITOPE RAIDS LABONE FOR NEW PRESIDENT/CEO; READIES DRUGS OF ABUSE MARKET LAUNCH DURING THE YEAR 2000, Epitope, Inc., based in Portland, Oregon, plans to introduce a drugs of abuse test based on its patented OraSure® oral collection technology. To aid in this new product l…
Abbott, CARESIDE, Bio-Reference Labs, DIANON Systems
SWARM OF LAWSUITS NOW PLAGUES ABBOTT LABS PAYING A $100 MILLION FINE TO THE Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not end Abbott Laboratories, Inc.’s problems related to its diagnostic test kits and reagents. Since payment of the FDA fine last month, Abbott has been serv…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 15 – October 27, 2025
The Dark Report examines the momentous decision by the VA to switch accreditors from The Joint Commission to CAP. Also, we analyze retractions in pathology journals to gain insight into scientific fraud.
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