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.
Bankruptcy Court Okays Unilab’s Offer For Meris
CEO SUMMARY: Meris Laboratories, Inc. is now history. California’s intense competitive market pushed the company into bankruptcy and eventual sale to Unilab, Inc. Even as Unilab moves to consolidate and integrate Meris’ clients and operations into its system, attention is focusing on …
SBCL Inks National Pact With Aetna US Healthcare
CEO SUMMARY: As a corporate strategy, SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories wants national contracts and exclusive provider status. The Aetna U.S. Healthcare agreement is SmithKline’s latest victory. Both companies are moving rapidly to implement the contract. In many cities where Ae…
SmithKline’s Strategies Now Delivering Benefits
CEO SUMMARY: Business strategy does make a difference. However, it sometimes takes years to appreciate the wisdom of choosing one strategy over another. In the case of SmithKline Beecham’s lab division, the decision to become sole-source provider to the nation’s largest HMOs may event…
UroCor’s Sales Team Continues To Achieve New Sales Milestones
AT A TIME WHEN MANY clinical laboratories are experiencing a lack of growth, UroCor, Inc. of Oklahoma City continues its expansion of diagnostic services. Recently the company announced an important milestone. At the end of third quarter 1998, UroCor now services 2,500 of the nation…
Washington State’s PacLab Network Is A Regional Winner
CEO SUMMARY: As a regional laboratory network, PacLab is unusual in one respect: participating hospital laboratories did not meet endlessly to talk about what they should do. Instead, action was the operative word for these network organizers. Since becoming operational in 1996, their bia…
Pathology PPMs Unlike Most Other PPM Firms
PHYSICIAN PRACTICE MANAGEMENT (PPM) companies have arrived at pathology’s doorstep. For better or worse, a new era is pushing its way into the pathology profession. In the first installment of this exclusive DARK REPORT series, we exposed the rotten secret behind the …
Unilab’s Bid To Buy Meris Will Shake Up California
CEO SUMMARY: More laboratory overcapacity may be removed from the California marketplace if Unilab purchases Meris Laboratories. Unilab’s offer to buy Meris must be cleared by the bankruptcy court and other bidders may surface during the coming weeks. These events are a reminder that fi…
DIANON Shoots At Urocor, Makes Unwelcome Offer
CEO SUMMARY: It pays to know your friends. Last month DIANON Systems announced an unsolicited offer to acquire UroCor. The offer, following months of ongoing discussions between the two companies, was clearly unwelcome at UroCor. Both companies are pushing hard to evolve disease managemen…
Veterans Administration Network Restructures Using Partnering, Telepathology
CEO SUMMARY: Economic pressures are forcing even the traditional and staid Veterans Administration to extensively reconfigure its laboratory services. At this year’s Executive War College in New Orleans, participants learned how one eight-hospi…
United Health’s Big Losses Derail Merger With Humana
CEO SUMMARY: Considered the darling of the managed care industry by investors, United Healthcare’s huge write-down makes it the latest healthcare behemoth to post an immense loss. Laboratory executives should see this as a sign that even big healthcare companies are struggling to develop fiscal sta…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 13 – September 15, 2025
The Dark Report examines a new bill that would reform PAMA and avoid reimbursement rate cuts scheduled for January 2026. Clinical laboratory leaders are urged to make their voices heard in Congress. Also, an expert describes how labs can fix pre-analytical errors and avoid disaster.
See the full table of contentsHow Much Laboratory Business Intelligence Have You Missed?
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