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

Volume XXV No. 1 - January 2, 2018

Helping You Plan Your Lab’s Financial Future

WE ARE NOW IN THE NEW YEAR and the 2018 Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) is a reality. The dramatic price cuts that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has enacted is the single most disruptive financial event the clinical laboratory industry has faced in the past two decades. As we have …

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ACLA Suit Challenges HHS’ Data-Collection Efforts

CEO SUMMARY: In a lawsuit filed last month, the American Clinical Laboratory Association charged that HHS failed to comply with the statutory requirements of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 when setting the 2018 Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule. In the lawsuit, ACLA said HHS disregarded the law’s requirement that all applicable laboratories would …

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Lab Executives Declare Concerns about Fee Cuts

CEO SUMMARY: Members of Joint Venture Hospital Laboratories in Michigan anticipate that the 2018 Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule rates being implemented under PAMA will lower payment from Medicare to less than the cost of running tests, especially for rural and critical access hospitals. CMS established the 2018 CLFS under the Patient Access to Medicare Act …

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Medicare Fees Less Than Lab Costs to Serve SNFs?

CEO SUMMARY: Anticipating the negative financial impact of the Medicare 2018 Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, a community lab company serving 24 nursing homes on the Jersey Shore stopped offering such services at the end of last year, a lab director told THE DARK REPORT. “The same forces driving this laboratory to close its nursing home …

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In Florida, More Tests Added to UHC’s Decision-Support Program

IN THE FIRST BROAD EXPANSION OF ITS pilot decision-support program for clinical lab testing in Florida, UnitedHealthcare (UHC) will add genetic and molecular tests, drug tests, and pathology procedures, among other assays starting in two months. On March 1, UHC will expand its laboratory benefit management program in Florida beyond the initial 80 routine anatomical …

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Beckman Coulter Sues Quidel for Right to Sell BNP Assay

THERE IS AN INTERESTING COURT FIGHT UNFOLDING between Beckman Coulter Corporation and Quidel over the rights to sell a B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) assay. The lawsuit is a consequence of Abbott Laboratories’ acquisition of Alere, Inc., last fall. With that acquisition, Abbott Laboratories became the world’s largest manufacturer of point-of-care (POCT) lab tests. But federal …

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January 2, 2018 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News

In Arizona, individuals and patients who paid for clinical laboratory tests performed by Theranos, Inc., are finally getting refunds. These payments are a result of a settlement between the Arizona Attorney General and Theranos. News accounts indicate that, over the time in 2013 through 2016 that Theranos offered lab tests in Arizona through its relationship with …

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