The Dark Report Archives

Trump Signs Executive Order on Price Transparency

ON FEBRUARY 25, PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SIGNED AN EXECUTIVE ORDER targeted at driving price transparency requirements for hospitals and insurers. The order aims to strictly enforce a previous rule, signed during his first term, intended to provide patients with clear, accurate, and actionable healthcare pricing information. The executive order directs the federal Departments of the […]

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White House Is Off to a Fast Start, So Pay Attention

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

We already see the second term of President Donald Trump influencing clinical laboratory business operations. It’s not The Dark Report’s stance to jump on the political soapbox of whether Trump’s actions are a tragedy or a boon; let the cable TV pundits debate that. However, as with any move—business, political, or otherwise—the success or failure

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COLA Summit to Address Lab Staffing Shortages

Clinical Laboratory Trends / Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: An upcoming gathering of COLA’s Workforce Action Alliance will focus on three staffing challenges: improving data needed to understand the current clinical laboratory workforce; promoting career paths for new professionals in the field; and identifying ways to better recognize these workers. Workforce shortages have long been a challenge for clinical laboratories, but the

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March 31, 2025, Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News

Late Breaking Lab News / Robert Michel

As this issue went to press, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced wide workforce reductions across several agencies that fall under the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). They include the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which will decrease by 3,500 employees; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which

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Innovations in Lab Testing Arriving at Light Speed

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark, Laboratory Compliance / R. Lewis Dark

TODAY, IT’S A CHALLENGE TO STAY UP WITH ALL THE NEW THINGS arriving in the lab testing marketplace. Novel assays are launched weekly. That is equally true for next-generation automation and lab analyzers, with vendors regularly announcing something new to their menu of products. The pace of innovation involving information technology is moving even faster.

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Medical Robotics Developer Says It’s Time to Transform Phlebotomy

Laboratory Equipment / Robert Michel

“Our innovation aims to make blood draws fully autonomous, safer, faster, more accurate, less painful, and more accessible.” —Brian Joseph, co-founder, Vitestro CEO SUMMARY: Phlebotomy and collection of veinous blood is one important procedure in clinical laboratory testing that continues to be primarily a manual process. That is about to change. Netherlands-based Vitestro has obtained

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Some Health Plans Drop Deductibles as Response to New Consumerism

Clinical Laboratory / Robert Michel

It may surprise many pathologists and clinical laboratory administrators to learn that one major health insurer’s best-selling plan has only copays and no deductible, no coinsurance, and no cost-shifting! That plan is Surest, a group plan offered by UnitedHealthcare in recent years. Becker’s Payer Issues wrote, “In 2022, the payer introduced Surest, a deductible-free offering

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March 10, 2025, Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News

Late Breaking Lab News / Robert Michel

Genetic testing is coming to a cruise ship! The New York Post reported that the MV Narrative will be launched this year by Storylines. CruiseCritic describes this vessel as “a residential ship that will create a floating ‘neighborhood’ for a community of up to 1,000 people, including families … With 547 ‘residences,’ owners buy into

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Upcoming Executive War College to Cover Important Lab Trends

Laboratory Information Systems / Robert Michel

New developments now changing the landscape in health-care and the clinical laboratory market will be addressed at the upcoming 30th Annual Executive War College on Diagnostic, Clinical Laboratory, and Pathology Management that happens on April 29-30, 2025, in New Orleans. That includes the ongoing uncertainty about the fate of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA)

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Optum Adds Gestalt to Its Digital Diagnostic Suite

Digital Pathology / Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: This development signals Optum’s intent to be a player in digital pathology. Its deal with Gestalt Diagnostics adds a pathology solution to Optum’s existing suite of cloud-based services for managing digital images generated by cardiology, radiology, and hematology-oncology. In this rapidly developing market segment, Optum competes against GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers, Philips, Sectra,

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