This is an excerpt from a 2,400-word article in the October 1, 2018 issue of THE DARK REPORT. The complete article is available at all times to paid members of the Dark Intelligence Group, and non-members may access one premium article per month.
CEO SUMMARY: Many lab professionals are disappointed at the news that there will
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXV No. 14 – October 1, 2018 issue
HOW OFTEN IS A DEFUNCT LAB COMPANY IN THE NEWS? That was the odd development last week when it was announced that a U.S. District Court had entered a $1.4 million civil judgement against Calloway Laboratories, Inc., a toxicology lab company formerly based in Woburn, Mass., for business practices during the period May 2014 through
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXV No. 14 – October 1, 2018 issue
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 failed to bring enough violators to justice to effectively
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 14 – October 1, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: In a ruling issued Sept. 12, a U.S. District Court judge decided that two common clinical laboratory business practices are illegal inducements that can lead to charges of ling false claims. The practices occur when labs pay physicians to package and mail patients’ specimens and when labs waive copays and deductibles for patients.
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 14 – October 1, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Many lab professionals were disappointed at the news that a federal judge dismissed the American Clinical Laboratory Association’s arguments in its lawsuit against the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In an interview, the ACLA’s lead lawyer on the case discussed the key issues and explained ACLA’s claims about how HHS
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 14 – October 1, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: While acknowledging that the American Clinical Laboratory Association raises important questions in its case against the federal Department of Health and Human Services, a district court judge ruled that the court cannot resolve the dispute and dismissed the ACLA’s claims for lack of “subject matter jurisdiction.” While not dismissing it outright, the judge
CEO SUMMARY: Two trends are driving a movement to standardize laboratory operations across large regions: the integration of clinical care and the need for hospitals and health networks to continuously improve patient outcomes. THE DARK REPORT outlines an ambitious program in Michigan, where Ascension Health is working to align itself with an integrated health system
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 13 – September 10, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: When commercial and government payers use auditors to review a lab’s claims, they often use statistical sampling and extrapolation to limit the time needed to review claims. But proper sampling and extrapolation require following the rigorous scientific methods to produce a representative sample of claims to draw conclusions they can apply to the
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 13 – September 10, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Two trends are driving a movement to standardize laboratory operations across large regions: the integration of clinical care and the need for hospitals and health networks to improve patient outcomes continuously. In Michigan, Ascension Health is an example of a lab team working to standardize lab testing activities among seven organizations, 14 hospitals,
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 13 – September 10, 2018 issue
AMONG THE ROUGHLY 6,500 HOSPITALS OPERATING in the United States, only about 125 (2.5%) have closed in the past five years. But in the coming years, some 450 hospitals are at risk of closing. Analysts at Morgan Stanley said 600 other hospitals have weak finances that could lead them to close.
In the report, Morgan Stanley,
