Tag: lab services

April 8, 2019 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News

By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXVI No. 5 – April 8, 2019 issue

BeaconLBS announced a collaboration with MagnaCare of Garden City, N.Y., last month. The press release issued by the two companies stated that MagnaCare would use the “BeaconLBS Physician Decision Support (PDS) solution with its network of physician and laboratory providers.” MagnaCare describes itself as a company serving “Taft-Hartley funds, TPAs, carriers, and worker’s compensation and no-fault

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Reacting to PAMA Cuts, Lab Works with Payers

By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXVI No. 5 – April 8, 2019 issue

CEO SUMMARY: Before Medicare’s lab test price cuts went into effect last year, Health Network Laboratories began discussions with private health insurers and nursing home clients about the possibility of renegotiating their contracts. In these discussions, HNL promoted the value it delivers to health insurers in terms of fast turnaround times, lab-test utilization management, and

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PAMA Price Cuts Reduce Revenue at Two National Labs

By Mary Van Doren, from the Volume XXVI No. 3 – February 25, 2019 issue

This is an excerpt from a 1,500-word article in the Feb. 25, 2019 issue of THE DARK REPORT. The full article is available to members of The Dark Intelligence Group.

CEO SUMMARY: In their respective earnings reports for the fourth quarter and the full year of 2018, executives at both Laboratory Corporation of America and Quest

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PAMA Price Cuts Reduce Revenue at LabCorp, Quest

By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXVI No. 3 – February 25, 2019 issue

This story was updated from the original on March 27, 2019, and includes corrected information in three places.

CEO SUMMARY: In their respective earnings reports for the fourth quarter and the full year of 2018, executives at both Laboratory Corporation of America and Quest Diagnostics told financial analysts that the Medicare fee cuts of 2017 and

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Lower Prices, More Data in UHC’s New Lab Network?

By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXVI No. 2 – February 4, 2019 issue

CEO SUMMARY: It’s been a common strategy among managed care payers to seek the lowest prices for clinical laboratory testing when negotiating contracts with labs. However, lower prices may become less important over time as the health system moves away from fee-for-service payment toward value-based reimbursement. Now evidence is accumulating that at least some large

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UHC Reportedly Cutting Ties with Regional Labs

By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 18 – December 24, 2018 issue

CEO SUMMARY: By cutting out smaller, regional labs, UnitedHealthcare appears to want to shift an unknown percentage of its lab test volume to Quest Diagnostics Inc., which it recently restored to its national provider network. Clinical lab directors should be concerned about this development because UHC is the nation’s largest health insurer and because other

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Sonic Adds More Value to Help Physicians Treat CKD Patients

By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 16 – November 13, 2018 issue

BUILDING ON THE LESSONS IT LEARNED by developing lab services that helped primary care physicians identify, diagnose, and treat diabetes patients in their practices, Sonic Healthcare USA was ready to do the same for another disease.

Sonic wanted to go beyond simply reporting an accurate and timely lab test result. Instead, it wanted to leverage the

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Sonic Uses Lab Data, Patient-Contact Tools, to Improve Outcomes

By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 16 – November 13, 2018 issue

CEO SUMMARY: In its work for a federally qualified health center, Sonic Healthcare USA helped physicians use a data-driven approach to population health management that incorporated integrated financial and clinical analytics. Also, Sonic developed technologies that give ordering physicians clinical decision support and targeted patient engagement tools. It then developed a way to contact patients

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Project Santa Fe Labs Deliver Value with Tests

By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 16 – November 13, 2018 issue

CEO SUMMARY: No bigger threat looms over the financial security of the nation’s clinical laboratories than healthcare’s transition from fee-for-service payment to value-based reimbursement. To navigate that transition successfully, medical labs and pathology groups will need to adopt the Clinical Lab 2.0 model. Member labs of Project Santa Fe are themselves working to develop and

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Quest Acquires Two Labs, Two Other Health Firms

By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 15 – October 22, 2018 issue

CEO SUMMARY: In the span of four days in September, Quest Diagnostics agreed to buy two lab companies and the lab testing service line of a third firm. In August, it purchased wellness company Provant Health, which had earlier filed a bankruptcy action. Each of these transactions helps Quest concentrate more on proprietary products and

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Volume XXVI No. 5 – April 8, 2019

IT'S A FIRST FOR THE CLINICAL LAB INDUSTRY - and American industry as a whole. This issue exclusively reveals that after two years of testing, a lab has achieved the first revenue-generating flight of an unmanned drone in the U.S. Now, the lab's transport of supplies and specimens can safely bypass traffic regularly. Remarkably, the project has involved the cooperation of UPS and both the FAA and state regulators. Also, TDR reports that another government initiative, the National Correct Coding Initiative, has apparently gone awry. Labs could be harmed if they submit claims incorrectly based on the NCCI.

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Tag: lab services

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