Issue: Volume XXIV No. 16 - November 20, 2017

Is the Worm Turning in Favor of Hospital Labs?

SINCE THE MID-1990S, HOSPITAL OUTREACH LABORATORY PROGRAMS have lost market share steadily to the nation’s biggest public lab companies. In these two decades, public lab companies traded deeply-discounted lab test prices to health insurers in exchange for exclusive network provider status. Then, about eight years ago, having captured many managed-care contracts across the nation, big …

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Paths of Hospital Labs, Independent Labs Diverge

CEO SUMMARY: With each passing year, the primary role of hospital and health system labs evolves in a different direction than that of independent lab companies. This trend is a response to the creation of integrated delivery networks paid on value and how they are scored on their ability to keep patients out of hospitals …

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Surprisingly Low Price Paid for Miraca’s AP Lab Is a Warning

EVEN INTO THE MID 1980s, coal miners used canaries as an early-detection system for the presence of carbon monoxide and other toxic gases. In this way, canaries served as a sentinel species to save miners’ lives. Clinical laboratories and pathology groups don’t have a sentinel species to warn them about trouble ahead, but they do …

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Fla. Lab Sells to Labcorp, But Keeps Nursing Homes

CEO SUMMARY: Vista Clinical Diagnostics of Clermont, Fla., is betting big on the nursing home sector just when many labs serving nursing homes are worried about steep Medicare cuts coming Jan. 1. After selling its physician office referral testing, 35 patient service centers, and a mobile testing service to LabCorp, Vista will retain its nursing …

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CMS Publishes Final CLFS Rates, Labs Prepare to Cut Staff or Close

MEDICARE OFFICIALS PUBLISHED the final Part B Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule for 2018 last Friday. Some changes clinical labs will welcome. The rates remain deeply flawed, however, and will cause many labs to lay off staff and others to close, experts said Saturday. How CMS set the rates remains problematic, stated Julie Khani, President of …

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FDA Clears Waived CBC For Near-Patient Testing

CEO SUMMARY: Market clearance of the first-ever CLIA-waived analyzer for complete blood count and three-part differential tests could cut time-to-answer from days to mere minutes for one of the top 20 tests by volume performed at core laboratories. Developer Sysmex America, Inc., foresees its analyzer as a complement to central labs. Basic diagnostics would be …

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November 20, 2017 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News

Last Friday, Roche announced an agreement to acquire Viewics, Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., in a transaction that, subject to regulatory clearance, is expected to close on Nov. 21. Viewics sells a middleware analytics solution to clinical labs. Terms of the sale were not announced. Viewics was founded in 2010. SUNQUEST IN DEAL WITH N-OF-ONE Earlier …

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