BRLI, LabCorp, Quest Disclose Data Breaches of 20M Patients

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXVI No. 8 – June 10, 2019 Issue

EARLIER THIS MONTH, BioReference Laboratories, Laboratory Corp. of America, and Quest Diagnostics each reported data breaches. The breaches originated with the American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA), which provides payment servic…

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More Primary Care Docs Will Offer Genetic Tests

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXV No. 10 – July 9, 2018 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: This summer, both Geisinger Health and Sanford Health will introduce genetic tests designed specifically for use by primary care physicians in their daily practice. This is a significant milestone on the road to wider deployment of precision medicine services. In the case of …

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McKesson, Change Healthcare Decide to Create New Company

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIII No. 9 – July 5, 2016 Issue

ACROSS THE NATION, the hundreds of pathology groups and clinical labs that use McKesson Technology Solutions for their billing and collections, along with labs that use the Advanced Diagnostics Solutions group, should pay attention to a major corporate deal announced…

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How to Cover Genetic Tests Confounds Health Insurers

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIII No. 5 – April 11, 2016 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Managed care experts say health insurers are being overwhelmed by the number of new genetic tests and that many labs find it tough to get paid for these tests. UnitedHealthcare just announced it will require pre-authorization of molecular and genetic tests during 2016. Me…

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Meaningful Use Stage 2 to Challenge Labs in 2014

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XX, No. 17 – December 23, 2013 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: On December 6, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed to delay implementation of Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2 until 2016. One reason is that only about 80 vendors have certified their products to MU Stage 2. That is a small proportion of the almost 900 vendo…

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Most Colorado Labs Now Connected to State’s HIE

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XX No. 15 – November 11, 2013 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: One trend getting little publicity is that of health information exchanges (HIEs). Since its founding in 2009, the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO) has grown steadily. Today, most of the state’s independent lab companies and hospital laboratories a…

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Top 10 IT Trends Send Message For Labs & Pathology Groups

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XIX No. 6 – April 23, 2012 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Healthcare’s shift away from fee-for-service medicine and toward integrated clinical care is widely recognized. However, few lab administrators and pathologists are aware of the even faster transformation underway in healthcare informatics. Presented here are the “Top 10 …

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Georgia HIE Helps all Labs Feed Test Data to Docs

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XVIII No. 12 – September 6, 2011 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: In Macon, Georgia, an innovative effort by a regional extension center and a health information exchange (HIE) will level the playing field for hospital labs and independent labs in the state. Their goal is to build a secure and flexible clinical integration platform…

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February 7, 2011 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XVIII No. 2 – February 7, 2011 Issue

In Nigeria, the kidnap of a professor of pathology at the University of Uyno last month caused work stoppages by academic union members in protest of the government’s failure to protect medical faculty from the recent rash of kidnappings. Pathologist Dr. Memfin Ekp…

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Xerox, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard Each Buy Into IT Outsourcing Market

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XVI No. 16 – November 23, 2009 Issue

IN RECENT WEEKS, TWO BIG PLAYERS spent billions to buy seats at the healthcare information technology (IT) table. Just one week apart, Xerox Corporation and Dell, Inc., acquired Affiliated Computer Services, Inc., and Perot Systems Corp….

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