By maryv
CEO SUMMARY: Publication of the draft CMS Physician Fee Schedule on July 12 brought unwelcome news for the clinical lab industry, at least as it pertains to that perennial question: Should hospital lab outreach data be included in a PAMA market study? The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services must conduct a new market
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXV No. 11 – July 30, 2018 issue
PROBLEMS WITH CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING IN IRELAND continue to make headlines in the Irish newspapers and roil the Irish health system. Caught up in this story are two billion-dollar lab companies that performed cervical cancer screening under contract to the Irish Health Service.
THE DARK REPORT provided its first coverage of these developments in its previous
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 11 – July 30, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: New national lab contracts that LabCorp and Quest announced in May could disrupt the lab testing market in ways regional labs can exploit, experts said. Health plans entered these new contracts after realizing that the exclusive network contracts do not work, one lab consultant explained, adding that large national labs will compete with
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 11 – July 30, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Publication of the draft Medicare Physician Fee Schedule on July 12 brought unwelcome news for the clinical lab industry, at least as it pertains to whether hospital lab outreach data should be included in the PAMA market study that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services must conduct. In the draft rule,
By maryv
CEO SUMMARY: As the debate grows more heated, supporters of hospital outpatient department (HOPD) billing schemes have ramped up their defense of the practice. The president of the National Association of Rural Hospitals tells THE DARK REPORT that rural hospitals are permitted to bill for hospital lab outreach program services under Medicare’s 70/30 shell rule.
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXV No. 10 – July 9, 2018 issue
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center of Wake Forest, N.C., has been notified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in a letter dated June 15, that it is back in compliance with Medicare Conditions of Participation. Earlier this year, following inspection of the hospital and its anatomic pathology department, federal and state officials identified
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 10 – July 9, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: In Ireland, the big story in healthcare at the moment is the discovery that the nation’s cervical cancer screening program has failed hundreds of women who had pre-cancerous conditions or cervical cancer, but, as alleged in numerous court cases, their tests were inaccurate or the results not communicated to their physicians, or both.
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 10 – July 9, 2018 issue
HOW THE LAB OUTREACH BUSINESSES of rural hospitals originate lab specimens and bill for lab tests is getting increased scrutiny. The reason for this rise in interest is that a growing number of rural hospitals are generating almost as much revenue from laboratory outreach testing as they get from all other inpatient services.
Most rural hospitals
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 10 – July 9, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: In recent years, many rural hospitals have entered into agreements to expand their laboratory outreach businesses. In an interview, the president of the National Association of Rural Hospitals said rural hospitals often bill for lab outreach services under Medicare’s 70/30 shell rule. This rule, as modified by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of
By R. Lewis Dark, from the Volume XXV No. 10 – July 9, 2018 issue
IT’S TIME FOR ALL CLINICAL LABS AND ANATOMIC PATHOLOGY GROUPS to pay closer attention to the advances in genetic medicine and precision medicine. Events are moving even faster than most experts have predicted.
As you will read on pages 3-4, two innovative health networks are on the verge of offering sophisticated genetic tests to patients visiting
