Volume XXIV No. 10 – July 17, 2017
The most complete archive of clinical and pathology lab industry news available, including issues from 1997 to the present.
FOR LAB MANAGERS WORRIED about being parceled out to a national lab, news reports that Quest Diagnostics had exited the long-running CompuNet Clinical Laboratory joint venture in Ohio is intriguing. THE DARK REPORT provides exclusive analysis of that news, provides a history of the lab joint venture, and considers the possibility of a trend in lab agreements with Quest. Also, this issue includes analysis of the trend in genetic testing pre-authorization and its impact on local labs.
IT’S A STARTLING ACHIEVEMENT: A Silicon Valley-based lab company, just two years after its founding, has become an in-network lab provider for a number of health insurers—including three of the nation’s largest payers, gaining in-network access to 100 million members. How did the firm do it? By establishing a rock-bottom price of $249 for its 30-gene test panel and building a physician-friendly portal that makes it quick and easy for doctors to meet pre-authorization requirements when ordering the test. In another article, THE DARK REPORT explains why it’s past time for labs to make more money by helping to improve outcomes — that is, adopting Clinical Lab 2.0 for the future.
IT’S GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS for the laboratory industry, as attested to by industry leaders at the Dark Intelligence Group’s annual Executive War College. Speakers explained in detail how the rise of precision medicine will bolster labs, and how looming Medicare cuts will hurt them. Innovation in business models is on the table, and detailed in depth by the experts in this issue.
BEYOND THE NEWS OF FDA CLEARANCE of a digital pathology system, THE DARK REPORT explains the actual impact and practical benefits of digital pathology to real-life pathology groups, such as a smoother workflow and greater profitability. Also, researchers involved in a stunning study showing a diagnostic error rate of 21% for patients referred to the Mayo Clinic explain how lab professionals can improve physicians’ diagnostic accuracy and add value to their work.
EVERY LABORATORY IN THE U.S. is watching how CMS is moving, step-by-step, to implement the final rule for private payer lab test price reporting, as mandated by PAMA. In this issue, THE DARK REPORT considers potential reasons for the agency’s recent price test reporting delay, the possibility that CMS is manipulating data to get the results it wants, and the disaster that the entire project could be for thousands of labs and their patients.
FOR LAB EXECUTIVES, 2017 is shaping up to be the year of the deal, and THE DARK REPORT is your go-to source for all the inside details of the latest lab acquisitions and laboratory sales. Read in this issue about the financial sustainability of hospital lab outreach programs. What does the future hold for hospital lab administrators and clinical pathologists?
THE DARK REPORT is first to report that the coming Medicare Part B fee cuts have begun to affect the projected financial sustainability of community labs and hospital lab outreach programs. In two articles, we cover the recent sale of PeaceHealth Laboratories to Quest Diagnostics and the transaction’s implications for the economic viability of outreach lab businesses in the future. Also, in an exceptional development, the University of Michigan Medical Center Department of Pathology is learning new ways to add value that include face-to-face meetings with patients. And, a first look on the important trend of rising salaries for pathologists and PhDs with expertise in molecular and genetic testing.
THE CLASH BETWEEN the benefits versus costs of pharmacogenomics — supposedly the wave of the future because of its role in personalized medicine — is highlighted by two contrasting, in-depth reports in this issue of THE DARK REPORT. One health system successfully leverages it to radically improve patient outcomes, while two others have been slammed with massive recoupment demands on the grounds that such tests are medically unnecessary, as reported first in THE DARK REPORT. Also, THE DARK REPORT steps out at the front of a new movement toward an entirely new lab business model: Clinical Laboratory 2.0.
IN A MUST-READ, IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS, THE DARK REPORT reports on a $26 million repayment demand faced by a pioneer in the fields of exome sequencing and pharmacogenomic testing — and just as clinical labs and pathologist have always feared, it comes from an audit by a private auditor under the Medicare Zone Program Integrity Contractor (ZPIC) program. With Chapter 11 bankruptcy facing the company, all laboratorians must understand the power of the auditor going forward, especially if this is a sign that ZPIC audits will be more aggressive in the future.
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