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
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
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
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
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
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
This is an excerpt from a 2,400-word article in the October 1, 2018 issue of THE DARK REPORT. The complete article is available at all times to paid members of the Dark Intelligence Group, and non-members may access one premium article per month.
CEO SUMMARY: Many lab professionals are disappointed at the news that there will
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 14 – October 1, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Many lab professionals were disappointed at the news that a federal judge dismissed the American Clinical Laboratory Association’s arguments in its lawsuit against the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In an interview, the ACLA’s lead lawyer on the case discussed the key issues and explained ACLA’s claims about how HHS
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 14 – October 1, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: While acknowledging that the American Clinical Laboratory Association raises important questions in its case against the federal Department of Health and Human Services, a district court judge ruled that the court cannot resolve the dispute and dismissed the ACLA’s claims for lack of “subject matter jurisdiction.” While not dismissing it outright, the judge
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 13 – September 10, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Almost half of the nation’s hospitals and health systems are rethinking how to use their clinical labs to support clinical and financial strategies. Options range from outright sale of their lab outreach businesses to lab management agreements or joint ventures with one of the nation’s three billion-dollar public lab companies. Each of the
