Reliable Business Intelligence News About Clinical Laboratories, Pathology Groups, & Laboratory
Diagnostics Since 1995
The most complete archive of clinical and pathology lab industry news available, including issues from 1997 to the present.
THERE HAS BEEN EXPLOSIVE GROWTH IN THE NUMBER OF PATIENTS enrolled in high- deductible health plans. Currently, more than 20 million people have HDHPs. This is one reason why many labs are experiencing high levels of patient bad debt never before seen by the lab industry during the past three decades.
BY COMBINING total lab automation with Lean techniques in a comprehensive makeover of its microbiology lab, one of the largest labs providing hospital acute care and community microbiology services in North America achieved major benefits. Benefits ranged from improvements in lab result turnaround time and reduced errors to significant gains in staff productivity and the quality of lab test results. Productivity improvements allowed the micro lab to absorb a 15% increase in specimen volume while staff levels were reduced by six full-time equivalent MLTs.
MEDICARE AND ITS STATE ANCILLARIES are poised to make deep cuts to lab test prices, starting with Medi-Cal in California. The state legislature there approved cuts of 25-30% which went into effect July 1, 2015. And Medicare officials, along with Congress, have embarked on a comparable effort to lower Medicare Part B clinical lab test fees to the similar levels that the two blood brothers give to their preferred customers. In addition, Medicare has now decided to end coverage for many pharmacogenomic tests, putting at risk as many as 19 million Americans who have genetic variations affecting their response to medications.
WHAT’S IN THE FUTURE FOR PHYSICIANS, PATHOLOGISTS, AND CLINICAL LABORATORIES if Laboratory Corporation of America’s strategy for managing lab test utilization is deployed across the country per the company’s plan? Also, some labs are finally reporting improvement in how their claims for certain molecular and genetic tests are being reimbursed. This is progress from the financial crises experienced during 2013 for many labs performing molecular and genetic tests.
WHAT ARE PATHOLOGISTS AND LAB EXECUTIVES TALKING ABOUT when they gather at lab industry conferences? If the hallway chats between sessions and dinner conversations that occurred last week at Executive War College are representative, then the clinical lab profession is closely tracking UnitedHealthcare, BeaconLBS and Theranos.
HOW CAN CLINICAL LABS FIGHT OFF the ongoing decline of test reimbursement prices? One enterprising pathology team in Seattle, WA, shows how their determined effort created an organization that involves lab scientists in helping physicians select the best test for the patient. Meanwhile, back at Theranos, intriguing developments are afoot.
IT WAS LOUIS PASTEUR who said that “Fortune favors the prepared mind.” As clinical labs and pathology groups struggle to get on board the ACO train, you’ll find ample evidence and lessons learned of this in our report on North Shore Pathologists and their ongoing engagement with the Integrated Health Network of Wisconsin, it was the foresight and preparation of the group in years before the formation of this integrated care network that helped them convince the organizers that there was a useful role for pathologists. This issue also continues THE DARK REPORT’s detailed reporting on the chaos that is UnitedHealthcare’s laboratory benefit management program rollout in Florida.
IN TODAY’S EVOLVING HEALTHCARE SYSTEM, labs and pathology groups of all sizes in all communities are dealing with the issues of payers narrowing networks and the formation of ACOs. But enterprising lab pathologists in Seattle and a small community hospital in New Hampshire are showing their colleagues the way forward. Meanwhile, UnitedHealthcare’s new test management program starts to impact physicians and patients in Florida.
THE DARK REPORT tells the remarkable story in this issue about how a huge national insurance company wants to cram a poorly-designed system for ordering lab tests down the throats of thousands of very unhappy doctors in the Sunshine State – a program that could be coming to a state near you. Also covered in this issue is an analysis of how the coming PAMA requirements aimed at cutting lab test prices over time will impact community labs, and an in-depth look at how a clinical lab has become one of the first ever to earn joint CLIA and ISO 15189 accreditations with the American Association of Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA).
DID THERANOS dismiss its CLIA lab director? As always, rumor runs rampant with the ever-secretive, self-proclaimed lab industry disruptor, and questions remain about the possible departure of this individual – without a new job in sight. Meanwhile, in the search for ways to add more value to lab testing services, pathologists and lab administrators are considering organizing diagnostic management teams within their hospitals, with specific lessons that can be learned by all their colleagues.
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Volume XXXII, No. 6 – April 21, 2025
Now that a federal judge has vacated the FDA’s LDT rule, The Dark Report analyzes the judgement and notes the various steps the FDA could take in response. Also, lab testing at pharmacies is proving to be less successful than was once anticipated.
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