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.
WILL RETAIL BEHEMOTH AMAZON become a competitor in the clinical lab industry? With its plans to build COVID-19 testing labs and history of disrupting the marketplace, this is a distinct possibility, and it’s not just THE DARK REPORT that thinks so. Also, UHC is about to do some disrupting of its own with its new test code protocol.
IS POOLED TESTING the answer to COVID-19 testing shortages? Yes and no. THE DARK REPORT analyzes the pros and cons of this suddenly-popular old idea, with experts from across the industry offering their input. Also in this issue is the case for why local labs should be getting more testing supplies, and how the government has damaged the supply chain.
THE NEWS ON THE SEROLOGICAL TEST FRONT is discouraging, even bleak, as THE DARK REPORT analyzes the outcome of the FDA’s own review of 11 tests previously listed as marketable. Only three tests passed the review, and yet a quality control expert consulted by THE DARK REPORT has dim views of the FDA’s testing operation, leading to even more doubts. Also, health insurers are scraping away at mandated COVID-19 test reimbursements, leaving lab revenues once again at their mercy.
THE DARK REPORT brings news that the national media has overlooked: Lab revenues, cut precipitously during the coronavirus pandemic, will leave many labs without the resources to continue operation in the near future. As calculated by THE DARK REPORT, the nation’s clinical lab industry had lost $6.8 billion in revenue by week 12 of the crisis. Also reported is that in many cases, the culprit is a frustrating lack of supplies that would allow labs to replace lost routine testing with new COVID-19 testing.
LABS CAN REST EASIER knowing that the initial flood of unvalidated faulty or fraudulent serological COVID-19 tests is being halted now that the FDA has done an about-face on its policies. And THE DARK REPORT offers behind-the-scenes insights into the COVID-19 Testing Project which used a multidisciplinary effort to analyze and compare the performance of 12 of these tests. In other good news, THE DARK REPORT reports on a potential new revenue source for cash-strapped labs.
COVID-19 NEWS IS HITTING the laboratory industry hard. With specimens — and therefore revenues — in a deep dive, lab finances are crashing, and COVID-19 testing isn’t entirely making up for the losses. But THE DARK REPORT shows labs how and where to apply for financial aid under federal relief packages. Meanwhile, a pre-eminent pathologist takes readers deep inside the Italian pandemic in an exclusive interview.
AS THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC roars through the United States, THE DARK REPORT delivers an unprecedented look from the front lines of the medical battlefield. The lab at the “epicenter of the epicenter” of the American epidemic shares its strategies and lessons learned exclusively with TDR, and the editorial team interviewed several leading pathologists who are battling the disease around the world.
CORONAVIRUS HITS THE LAB INDUSTRY especially hard, and THE DARK REPORT is behind the scenes to document early successes. These include the rapid validation of virus tests and the adaption of a mobile phlebotomy lab program to COVID-19 testing by one lab in the heart of the New York pandemic. In non-COVID-19 news, some commercial payers and state Medicaid programs are not paying for new proprietary laboratory analyses (PLA) codes and multianalyte assays with algorithmic analyses (MAAA) codes.
IT’S A TALE OF TWO LABS: One saw the handwriting on the wall and took steps to successfully stay in business by producing value-added outcomes. The other was forced to sell its outreach business to Quest Diagnostics. THE DARK REPORT outlines how each lab responded to pressures on their business to stay afloat. Also included in this issue are the details of how a manager of an opioid treatment center in Kentucky pleaded guilty recently to three counts under EKRA: soliciting a bribe, making a false statement, and attempting to tamper with evidence.
THE DARK REPORT EXAMINES how using cheap offshore billing companies might come back to bite clinical labs, which are turning to these companies to cut costs in an increasingly stressful business climate. Also in this issue is an insider look at how 33 industry groups came together to help get the Laboratory Access for Beneficiaries (LAB) Act passed, which will relieve some of the most onerous burdens imposed by Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2016.
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Volume XXVIII No. 3 – March 1, 2021
AN ONCOLOGY RESEARCH LAB demonstrates the usefulness of SARS-CoV-2 variant sequencing as hospitals, health systems, schools, and municipalities are interested in identifying infection sources and tracking the virus’ spread. Also, the conviction for manslaughter and mail fraud of a VA pathologist is a lesson for all anatomic pathology groups to heed, a lawyer explains.
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