Labs Serving Nursing Homes, Rural Areas to Suffer Most

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIV No. 14 – October 9, 2017 Issue

CLINICAL LABORATORIES WITH A HIGH percentage of Medicare Part B lab test reimbursement are expected to suffer the most under the Part B Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) cuts that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed Sept. 22. With the proposed rates schedul…

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Is Pharmacogenomics Testing Unaffordable for Payers?

By R. Lewis Dark | From the Volume XXIV No. 1 – January 9, 2017 Issue

ACROSS THE UNITED STATES, labs that perform pharmacogenomic tests complain that both government and private payers are reluctant to issue coverage guidelines and adequate reimbursement for these assays. Yet, this new class of diagnostic lab tests is the foundation of personalized and precision medici…

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Labs React with Criticism to Proposed ADLT Rule

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXII No. 15 – October 26, 2015 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Some in the lab industry had high hopes that passage of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) last year would favorably resolve a number of important issues. However, those hopes were dashed following the September 25 release by CMS of a proposed rule setting out how i…

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Did Some Lab Execs ‘Get What They Wished For?’

By R. Lewis Dark | From the Volume XXII No. 14 – October 5, 2015 Issue

BY NOW, MOST OF YOU HAVE LEARNED  that, just 12 days ago, CMS issued the proposed rule that details how it will handle the private market price reporting mandate of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA). Almost immediately, critics spoke out about the obvious inequities that will re…

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August 3, 2015 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXII No. 11 – August 3, 2015 Issue

Cerner Corporation is celebrating a big summer of contract awards from the Department of Defense. First up was a project to support further standardization of anatomic pathology within the laboratories operated worldwide by the DoD. Early in July, it was announced t…

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Theranos Won’t Discuss Disruptive Lab Technology

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XX No. 13 – September 30, 2013 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: In a partnership with Walgreens pharmacies, Theranos Inc. announced that it will run clinical lab tests on “micro-samples” and collect these blood samples without venipuncture. Even as Theranos touts the patient-friendly benefits of its proprietary diagnostic technology, …

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April 15, 2013 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XX No. 5 – April 15, 2013 Issue

Geisinger Health System broke ground last month on construction of a new $52 million medical laboratory facility. It will be 115,000 square feet and will be located at the site of the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania. LAB COMPANY COMPLET…

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LabCorp’s BeaconLBS Aims To Manage Genetic Tests

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XVIII No. 17 – December 19, 2011 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: BeaconLBS is a new business created by Laboratory Corporation of America. It says it wants to help health insurance plans manage molecular diagnostics and genetic testing. BeaconLBS is now recruiting other clinical labs to join its network and is meeting with payers to offer …

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Linking UroCor Indictments With Specialist Doc Pathology

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XI No. 10 – July 19, 2004 Issue

IS THE TIMING of the criminal indictments of three ex-UroCor executives going to be a fortuitous event for the anatomic pathology profession? I ask this question because the exploding trend of specialist physician groups internalizing anatomic pathology services was slated to be the…

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Lab Testing to Boom During This Decade

By Robert Michel | From the Volume IX No. 11 – August 5, 2002 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Several recent acquisitions of lab test technology by billion-dollar diagnostics manufacturers reinforce a new reality in the healthcare marketplace: developing new diagnostic tests is faster, cheaper, and more profitable than developing new pharmaceutical products. This simp…

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