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cpt code
Peeking at Whistleblower Claims: How Labs Induce Physicians
IN RECENT DECADES, probably no sector of the U.S. healthcare system has seen the level of fraud and abuse that seems to pervade the clinical laboratory industry. The common perception is that illegal inducements between lab companies and referring physicians are rampant and federal prosecutors have f…
Insights from Jury Verdict in HDL, BlueWave Case
CEO SUMMARY: After a two-week trial, the executives of Health Diagnostic Laboratories and BlueWave Healthcare Consultants were found guilty of violating the federal False Claims Act. Defendants Tonya Mallory, Floyd Calhoun Dent III, and Robert Bradford Johnson were ordered to pay the Unit…
Medicare Fees Less Than Lab Costs to Serve SNFs?
CEO SUMMARY: Anticipating the negative financial impact of the Medicare 2018 Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, a community lab company serving 24 nursing homes on the Jersey Shore stopped offering such services at the end of last year, a lab director told THE DARK REPORT. “The same forc…
Some Labs Performing ADLTs May See Increased Medicare Fees
MIXED IN THE BAD NEWS concerning the proposed Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule for 2018, there is some good news regarding what the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposes to pay for certain advanced diagnostic tests. After analyzing the proposed fee schedule, …
Positive Patient ID System Catches Patients Cheating on Toxicology Tests
CEO SUMMARY: The urine drug testing industry is challenged every day to detect the large number of patients trying to cheat on their drug tests. GenoTox Laboratories of Austin, Texas, developed a DNA-authentication method for urine samples that allows the lab to detect when patients have …
Labs Report Problems with Anthem’s Pre-Approval
CEO SUMMARY: Since the July 1 launch of its prior-authorization program for genetic tests, Anthem and its subsidiary, AIM Specialty Health, have authorized few genetic tests, said a national lab. Lab directors say they have been unable to communicate with Anthem/AIM when client physicians…
UnitedHealth to Start Gene Test Pre-Approval
CEO SUMMARY: With programs now at the nation’s two largest insurers, is it possible to argue that prior-authorization is going mainstream? Some observers say, yes, as THE DARK REPORT predicted. What is certain is that starting Nov. 1, UnitedHealthcare is requiring prior authorization fo…
Anthem/AIM Responds to Queries About Its Pre-Approval Program
AFTER SEVERAL LABS SPOKE about the difficulties in working with the new Anthem/AIM Specialty Heath prior-authorization program for genetic tests, THE DARK REPORT sent questions to Anthem. Responses from Anthem/AIM were lengthy and have been edited to fit the available space: …
Hospital Lab Data Essential For CMS Market Price Study
CEO SUMMARY: In five months, Medicare officials will implement a new Part B clinical laboratory fee schedule based on private payer lab price data submitted by certain medical laboratories required to report that data. At this year’s Executive War College, the CEO of XIFIN, Inc., reported o…
In Texas, Questions for UnitedHealth, BeaconLBS
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…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 7 – May 12, 2025
Economic, Tech changes drive lab concerns, The Dark Report provides insights from the Executive War College speakers about how clinical labs can use business strategies and tactics to handle the new tariffs, future regulations, and artificial intelligence (AI). Also, this issue provides guidance on how labs and pathologists should prepare for payer audits.
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