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

Volume XIX No. 5 - April 2, 2012

Securing your Lab’s Success as Healthcare Reforms

IT IS PROBABLY SAFE TO ASSUME THAT MOST OF YOU RECOGNIZE that the American healthcare system is about to undergo its most extensive transformation of the past 50 years. For better or for worse, we are about to see the end of medicine dominated by fee-for-service reimbursement and a fragmented delivery system. What is predicted …

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Hospital Labs Feel More Pressure to Lower Prices

CEO SUMMARY: It’s a new trend and gathering momentum. At managed care contract renewal time, more hospitals and health systems report much stronger pressure from health insurers to accept deep cuts to laboratory test prices. At the same time, managed care companies are getting smarter at designing health benefits plans that motivate and/or incentivize patients …

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Payer Trend in New Hampshire Is to Engage Lab Patients

CEO SUMMARY: A health insurer’s two-year-old effort to have patients choose low-cost laboratory testing options is causing patients to shift their lab work away from New Hampshire’s hospitals and instead use Quest Diagnostics, LabCorp, and ConVerge (a commercial lab company). This new health insurance program offers a number of important lessons for pathologists and lab …

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Critical Access Hospitals Losing Lab Test Work

CEO SUMMARY: One consequence of a new “site of service” health plan instituted by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New Hampshire is that community hospitals—particularly in rural areas—are being asked by patients to collect blood and lab specimens, then send them off to Anthem’s network laboratories. One New Hampshire hospital CEO explains how …

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Ohio Lab Offers Lessons Learned from CAP 15189

CEO SUMMARY: For a lab looking to continually improve lab operations, becoming accredited to either ISO 15189 or CAP 15189 is an ideal challenge. After hearing from other lab directors about the benefits of becoming accredited to CAP 15189, the staff at Mercy Medical Center in Canton, Ohio, believed that accreditation to this standard would …

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LifeLabs, Gamma-Dynacare, Sonic Healthcare, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital

LIFELABS QUEBEC TO BE ACQUIRED BY GAMMA-DYNACARE LAST WEEK, IT WAS ANNOUNCED that Gamma-Dynacare Medical Laboratories had signed a definitive agreement with LifeLabs Limited Partnership to purchase LifeLabs Quebec. Both parties expect the transaction to close by April 28, 2012. This laboratory acquisition is notable for at least three reasons. First, it involves Canada’s two primary …

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Exome Sequencing Next “Big Thing” for Diagnosis

CEO SUMMARY: For disease diagnostics, exome sequencing is not yet routine, but geneticists are getting close. Using this technology, researchers read those parts of the human genome where about 85% of disease-causing mutations reside. By looking only at the regions that encode proteins—the workhorse machinery of the cell—researchers identify dis- ease causes much faster than …

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April 2, 2012 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

Like a tenacious bulldog, Roche Holding AG continues its determined effort to acquire Illumina, Inc., the company that makes gene sequencing systems. Last week, Roche increased its offer from $44.50 per share to $51 per share for Illumina stock. That raises the price Roche says it will pay to $6.5 billion, which is 15% greater …

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