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53% Drop in Mortality from Lab Report Change
CEO SUMMARY: At Washington Hospital Center, it was unclear if the use of a rapid molecular assay for blood infections was changing outcomes until a new, real-time lab results reporting protocol required the lab to deliver the test results personally to the attending physician in real time…
Labs Should Build Payer Relationships to Improve Commodity Pricing
“Health plans are interested in improving outcomes and saving money on complex, expensive cases because that’s where the money is. At the same time, that’s an opportunity for labs to help health plans cut costs while also improving quality. ” —Kerry Kaplan, Presi…
CMS Anti-Markup Rules Target In-Office Ancillaries
CEO SUMMARY: Medicare officials are again attempting to rein in what they consider to be potentially abusive forms of in-office ancillary services, including anatomic pathology. Proposed new rules published this month would clarify and perhaps expand the application of the Medicare anti-m…
Toronto Pathologists Use Whole-Slide Imaging
CEO SUMMARY: It was the “frozen section problem” and productivity issues that led pathologists at the three-hospital University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto to implement a fully-digital pathology system with whole-slide imaging in 2006. Use of digital, whole-slide …
HealthPartners Promotes Same-Day Lab Test Results
CEO SUMMARY: Patient focus groups told HealthPartners that they had anxiety as they waited days for lab test results. That encouraged HealthPartners to redesign workflows in its pathology department. Once it could deliver same-day lab test results electronically, HealthPartners launched a…
Is Digital Path Imaging Ready for Prime Time?
CEO SUMMARY: Digital pathology imaging systems are finding uses in all phases of drug discovery (discovery, pre-clinical, clinical trials), as well as education, research, and clinical. One hurdle to widespread adoption of fully digitized, whole-slide pathology imaging systems is FDA clea…
June 16, 2008 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
GE Healthcare’s digital pathology joint venture with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), announced on June 5, is not the only in vitro diagnostics (IVD) investment by GE during 2008. Just this May, GE paid $738 million to acquire …
New Senate Bills Include Repeal of Competitive Bid
CEO SUMMARY: One proposed Senate bill would repeal the laboratory competitive bidding demonstration project, replace the 10.1% cut to physician fees with a 1.1% increase, and extend the so-called technical component (TC) grandfather clause. Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana),…
GE, UPMC Create Company for Digital Path Imaging
CEO SUMMARY: It’s a new joint venture with the potential to transform surgical pathology. General Electric Healthcare has extensive experience at supporting physicians’ work flow with digitized imaging systems, plus ample experience with molecular bio-markers. The University of Pittsb…
CMS Expected to Revise Condo Lab & TC/PC Rules
CEO SUMMARY: Expectations are that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will take further action to rein in anatomic pathology arrangements used by physicians to capture revenue from their patient referrals. This may happen as soon as next month, when CMS publishes the 2…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 13 – September 15, 2025
The Dark Report examines a new bill that would reform PAMA and avoid reimbursement rate cuts scheduled for January 2026. Clinical laboratory leaders are urged to make their voices heard in Congress. Also, an expert describes how labs can fix pre-analytical errors and avoid disaster.
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