TAG:
lab test
Anatomic Path Trends Portend Deep Changes
CEO SUMMARY: Our biannual review of trends shaping the anatomic pathology profession reveals that a wide range of influences are active. The nation’s healthcare system is undergoing fundamental changes in how it views the quality of health services and how it will favor top-performing p…
Offering Molecular Tests Has Surprises & Pitfalls
CEO SUMMARY: Laboratories that offer some of the new assays based on molecular technologies often find themselves facing significant financial risk. That’s because payers are skeptical about new lab tests which come at a high price, but don’t offer substantial clinical benefit. One ea…
RFP Secrets To Use When Buying Molecular Tests
CEO SUMMARY: It often takes two to four years before payer coverage and reimbursement become stable. During that time, NorDx Laboratories wants the vendors who sell it new molecular assays to have some “skin in the game.” It accomplishes this by negotiating contracts that link the con…
2003’s Big Lab Stories Reflect Health Trends
CEO SUMMARY: At a minimum, 2003 proved to be a year of relative stability for the laboratory industry, as demonstrated by THE DARK REPORT’S “Ten Biggest Lab Stories of 2003.” The year was free of industry-wide crises and scan- dals. That allowed most laboratory administrators and pa…
ABNs, Client Billing, “Free Testing? & Medicare Rules
BY ANY MEASURE, ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS by the Office of the Investigator General (OIG) for Medicare fraud and abuse within the laboratory testing industry was a big story during the 1990s. I wonder if we might not be at a crossroads that could take our profession down a similar path in …
“Free Testing” Strategy Stirs the Pot in Tenn.
CEO SUMMARY: In Tennessee, the state’s Medicaid HMO plan has been at odds with Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, which is using the “free testing” strategy to expand its share of the market. In recent months, TennCare Select has taken active steps to insure its physicians understand tha…
“Waiver of Charges”: What Makes It Work
CEO SUMMARY: Little-used in the 1990s, when laboratory test ordering and billing practices were under intense scrutiny by federal regulators, the strategy of “free testing” is popping up in more regions around the country. To comply with compliance guidelines, labs using this strategy g…
Lab Marketing Strategy Triggers Legal Concerns
CEO SUMMARY: That famous phrase “everyone wants something for nothing” does not describe TennCare Select’s reaction to the “free testing” that Quest Diagnostics is performing for its beneficiaries. TennCare provides a real-world example of how this strategy can put a laboratory at o…
Where Will “Free Tests” Take the Lab Industry?
CEO SUMMARY: In the absence of public discussion, continued use of the “free testing” strategy by the nation’s more aggressive laboratory companies could trigger some unpleasant consequences that would affect all laboratories and pathology group practices. Five questions, presented he…
Supply and Demand for Lab Services and Pathologists
IT SEEMS THE LABORATORY INDUSTRY HAS MANAGED to beat back the proposed 20% patient co-payment for Medicare Part B laboratory testing services. Kudos to the hard-working laboratorians and their lobbyists who devoted money and time to oppose this proposal. But the news remains glum. Word is that lawma…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 13 – September 15, 2025
The Dark Report examines a new bill that would reform PAMA and avoid reimbursement rate cuts scheduled for January 2026. Clinical laboratory leaders are urged to make their voices heard in Congress. Also, an expert describes how labs can fix pre-analytical errors and avoid disaster.
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