March 21, 2016 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIII No. 4 – March 21, 2016 Issue

Tougher times in the clinical lab testing market have claimed another lab company. On February 28, Artherotech, Inc., posted a notice on its website stating that it had closed permanently, as of that date. Along with its several hundred employees, Artherotech’s closure caught many…

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CLMA Asks Labs for Examples of RAC Auditor Overreach

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XIX No. 13 – September 17, 2012 Issue

STORIES ABOUT HOW PRIVATE MEDICARE AUDITORS are overreaching in their zeal to identify fraud have caught the attention of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. It is asking providers to submit examples of overzealous RAC auditors. For its part, the Clinical Laboratory Management Association …

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Inadvertent PT “Errors” Trigger CLIA Sanctions

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XIX No. 7 – May 14, 2012 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Despite taking appropriate steps to complete proficiency testing (PT), in recent years an unknown number of labs were determined to be in violation of CLIA requirements. Federal regulators are enforcing penalties ranging from suspension of the labs’ licenses to transition t…

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ELINCS Specifications Released in California

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XVIII No. 13 – September 26, 2011 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Clinical laboratories and pathology groups have a new tool to use for interfacing their LIS (laboratory information systems) with the electronic health record (EHR) systems of their office-based physician clients. It is ELINCS, an IT standard designed to support elec…

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Analysis of Lab Test Error Offers Lessons for Labs

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XVIII No. 6 – May 2, 2011 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: As happens now and again, a rather typical example of an error in lab testing has made the nightly news in Indianapolis because of one justifiably irate patient who got a false positive test report for an STD. One pathologist, asked by THE DARK REPORT to assess the p…

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Time for Labs to Use Web To Recruit Med Techs

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XVII No. 17 – December 6, 2010 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: On the Web, clinical laboratories have a chance to identify potential new hires weeks or months in advance and to interact with potential job candidates in ways that were not possible in the past. An experienced lab recruiter explains how labs can benefit from these …

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Systems Approach For Pre-Authorization Of Genetic Tests

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XVII No. 14 – October 4, 2010 Issue

CEO Summary: Pre-authorization of expensive genetic and molecular tests is a threat to local clinical laboratories and pathology groups if payers exclude them from provider networks in favor of labs which bid the lowest prices. But one major healthcare corporation believes there …

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Successful Laboratories in the Future Will Brand Themselves, Add Value

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XV No. 11 – August 18, 2008 Issue

“There is an opportunity for the laboratories to become more proactive with health plans. Pathologists are reading the literature and know specifically which diagnostics tests should be performed before expensive imaging procedures are ordered.” —Kerry Kaplan, Presid…

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Misys Health Restructures By Selling Two Divisions

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XIV No. 11 – August 6, 2007 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Misys Healthcare Systems of London, England, has sold its diagnostic LIS systems to Vista Equity Partners of San Francisco, California, for $381.5 million. The deal raises several questions, particularly for those labs currently running Misys laboratory information systems (L…

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BC Labs’ LOINC Venture Now Carries Pharma Info

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XI No. 15 – November 1, 2004 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: In British Columbia, two commercial laboratory companies are intense competitors. Yet, beginning in 2002, they jointly offered a single Web browser-based system for lab test results reporting. LOINC was the tool which linked their individual lab data repositories to the PathN…

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