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Medicare Demands Force PGx Lab into Bankruptcy
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIV No. 5 – April 3, 2017 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: It’s becoming a familiar story. In Houston, a pharmacogenomics lab company started strong in 2011, then payments dropped sharply when Medicare issued restrictive new guidelines for PGx testing. Next, the Medicare administrative contractor handling the claims of CompanionDx …
Texas Lawmakers Asked to Stop UHC and BeaconLBS
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIV No. 5 – April 3, 2017 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: In a letter to the Texas Legislature, 20 Texas medical societies say UnitedHealthcare’s BeaconLBS program would be detrimental to patient care. The Texas Medical Association and the Texas Society of Pathologists said they were concerned that the program increases the admini…
Pharmacogenomic testing a success at South Dakota health system
By Mary Van Doren | From the Volume XXIV No. 2 – January 30, 2017 Issue
This is an excerpt from a 2,700-word article in the January 30 issue of THE DARK REPORT. The complete article is available for a limited time to all readers, and available at all times to paid members of the Dark Intelligence Group. CEO SUMMARY: One es…
Health System Lab Is Genotyping To Identify Best Drugs for Patients
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIV No. 2 – January 30, 2017 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: One essential element of precision medicine will be the regular use of pharmacogenomic testing to provide additional guidance to physicians when selecting the most appropriate therapeutics and optimal dose for each individual patient. Despite the reluctance of private payers …
In Texas, BeaconLBS Start Will Be Delayed
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIV No. 2 – January 30, 2017 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: UnitedHealthcare will not implement the claims impact part of its laboratory benefit management program in Texas on March 1, 2017, as it had previously announced. Opposition to the program and the requirement that physicians use the BeaconLBS system when ordering about 79 lab…
Ending ‘Lab Tests as a Commodity’
By R. Lewis Dark | From the Volume XXIV No. 2 – January 30, 2017 Issue
WITH HEALTHCARE POISED TO MAKE FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES in both the delivery of care (think integration, ACOs, medical homes) and how providers are paid (less fee-for-service, more budgeted payment metho…
Another Pharmacogenomic Lab Hit With Audit, Multi-million Dollar Repayment Demand
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIV No. 2 – January 30, 2017 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: In 2014, during a ZPIC audit of an unnamed pharmacogenomic testing lab, a federal auditor reviewed a small number of claims that had been filed over a period of several years. Despite supporting letters from physicians, the auditor rejected those claims, then extrapolated the…
In Texas, Questions for UnitedHealth, BeaconLBS
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIV No. 1 – January 9, 2017 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: As of January 1, 2017, clinical laboratories and pathology groups in Texas will find it more difficult to serve the 500,000 patients enrolled in UnitedHealthcare’s fully-insured commercial plans in the Lone Star State. That’s because—just as it did in Florida—UnitedHe…
$26 Million Recoupment from Medicare Audit Hammers Pharmacogenomic Lab
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIV No. 1 – January 9, 2017 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: After Pharmacogenetics Diagnostic Laboratory LLC was audited by a Medicare Zone Program Integrity Contractor (ZPIC), it faced a $26 million repayment demand. The lab company appealed and asked for a redetermination, then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. These devel…
Is Pharmacogenomics Testing Unaffordable for Payers?
By R. Lewis Dark | From the Volume XXIV No. 1 – January 9, 2017 Issue
ACROSS THE UNITED STATES, labs that perform pharmacogenomic tests complain that both government and private payers are reluctant to issue coverage guidelines and adequate reimbursement for these assays. Yet, this new class of diagnostic lab tests is the foundation of personalized and precision medici…
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Volume XXXII, No. 4 – March 10, 2025
A bold new technology has entered the European lab marketplace, with the introduction of an autonomous robotic phlebotomy device, already in service at a Netherlands hospital. Also, The Dark Report announces its sale to LabX Media Group of Ontario Canada.
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