TAG:
clinical lab tests
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…
CMS Extends Reporting of Payer Prices by 60 Days
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIV No. 5 – April 3, 2017 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: Last Thursday, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it was extending the deadline for certain labs to report their private payer lab test prices by an additional 60 days, until May 30. Statements by CMS officials indicate that either or both the number …
PAMA Data Projections Led to Decision to Sell Lab
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIV No. 3 – February 21, 2017 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: Following passage of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, officials at PeaceHealth and PeaceHealth Laboratories began to model the financial effect this law would have on this long-established hospital lab outreach program. Based on projections of a 20% cut in reven…
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…
Much Disruption for Labs In 2016’s Top 10 Stories
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIII, No. 17 – December 19, 2016 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: Within THE DARK REPORT’S list of the Top 10 Lab Industry Stories for 2016 is one story of disruption that might have been one story of disruption about to happen. The disintegration of Theranos during 2016 is the big story about a self-proclaimed disruptor of the lab indust…
UHC, LabCorp Play Hard Ball With Texas Lab Contracts
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIII, No. 17 – December 19, 2016 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: In launching BeaconLBS in Texas, UnitedHealthcare included a new, more onerous twist than it used for BeaconLBS in Florida. To be a BeaconLBS in-network ‘lab of choice,’ a lab must be in the lowest quartile for lab test prices. Any lab above the 25th percentile would have…
Why Small Labs and Even Hospitals Are at Risk from PAMA Cuts
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIII No. 16 – November 28, 2016 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: Clinical lab executives and experts who have studied the final rule for PAMA lab test market price reporting are seriously concerned that the design of this rule may put many of the nation’s smallest, but still essential, clinical labs at great risk of financial distress, i…
California’s Lab Price Data Collection Project Cuts Lab Test Prices by 10.5%
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIII No. 16 – November 28, 2016 Issue
COLLECTING LAB TEST PRICE DATA is not limited to PAMA and the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. California’s Medi-Cal program is in its second year of requiring clinical labs to submit private payer lab test price data. However, in both the fir…
XIFIN Analysis of Its Real Price Data Shows Hospital Lab Price Effect
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIII No. 15 – November 7, 2016 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: In a new analysis of data its lab clients will use to report market prices to CMS, XIFIN Inc., reports private payers paid independent labs a weighted average price that was 19.6% less than what Medicare pays for 20 of its highest-volume tests. By contrast, private payers pa…
10% PAMA Fee Cut Would Lower Medicare Pay to Laboratories by $400 Million
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIII No. 15 – November 7, 2016 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: Just eight weeks remain before certain clinical laboratories must begin submitting private payer lab test price data to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. A new report …
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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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