By maryv
This is an excerpt from a 2,000-word article in the May 29, 2018 issue of THE DARK REPORT. The complete article is to all readers as long as the article limit has not been reached, and always available to paid members of the Dark Intelligence Group.
CEO SUMMARY: Seeking the higher lab-test payment rates that insurers
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 8 – May 29, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: After hospital labs and pathology groups implement Lean and process improvement methods to harvest the easiest cost savings and boost quality, they often take the next step of introducing real-time analytics systems. Access to detailed data about workflows, productivity, and turnaround times then drives continuous improvement projects. At St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 8 – May 29, 2018 issue
IT’S THE END OF AN ERA for the strategy of being the exclusive national lab provider for a major health insurer. Last week, the two largest clinical laboratory companies announced that the 10-year-old exclusive lab testing deals each had with a different big health insurer had crumbled.
In 2007, Laboratory Corporation of America locked up an
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 8 – May 29, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Seeking the higher lab-test payment rates that insurers pay hospital labs, some lab testing companies are buying rural, financially-struggling hospitals in what may be the latest twist on the pass-through billing strategy that certain lab testing firms have found to be lucrative in recent years. Currently, two lab companies are seeking to buy
By R. Lewis Dark, from the Volume XXV No. 8 – May 29, 2018 issue
IT IS AN IMPORTANT SIGN OF THE TIMES when press releases about the two new national lab services agreements that UnitedHealthcare just announced with Laboratory Corporation of America and Quest Diagnostics emphasize how value-based programs will be an important element in the health insurer’s relationships with the two national lab companies.
In fact, the joint announcements
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 7 – May 7, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: In two separate lawsuits filed in April, UnitedHealthcare (UHC) and Anthem each charged that drug testing companies used pass-through-billing schemes in ways the insurers say are fraudulent. UHC filed its lawsuit on April 18. One day later, on April 19, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia and other Anthem companies filed suit
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 6 – April 16, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Several developments have moved the case forward since December when the American Clinical Laboratory Association filed suit in federal court against the Department of Health and Human Services. Inrecent weeks, ACLA filed for summary judgment; HHS responded with its own request for summary judgment; and most recently ACLA filed its rebuttal to the
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXV No. 3 – February 12, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: After a two-week trial, the executives of Health Diagnostic Laboratories and BlueWave Healthcare Consultants were found guilty of violating the federal False Claims Act. Defendants Tonya Mallory, Floyd Calhoun Dent III, and Robert Bradford Johnson were ordered to pay the United States millions for causing HDL to submit more than 35,000 false claims
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV, No. 2 – January 22, 2018 issue
FOLLOWING YEARS OF CONTROVERSY associated with different plans to build a large new laboratory facility to serve Edmonton and the surrounding region, Alberta Health Services (AHS) will finance and build the new lab with its own resources.
Last month, the Alberta government announced that it will develop a new central laboratory that will process 80% of
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV, No. 1 – January 2, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Members of Joint Venture Hospital Laboratories in Michigan anticipate that the 2018 Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule rates being implemented under PAMA will lower payment from Medicare to less than the cost of running tests, especially for rural and critical access hospitals. CMS established the 2018 CLFS under the Patient Access to Medicare Act
