By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXVI No. 16 – November 25, 2019 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Court documents filed in U.S. District courts in New Jersey and North Carolina provide details about how each of the two lab companies set lab test prices differently—as much as 10 times higher—for cash-paying patients than for patients who have Medicare, Medicaid, or commercial health insurance plans. In court filings, plaintiffs allege that
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 XXII NO. 4 - March 9, 2015 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Since Anthem launched its site of service program in New Hampshire in 2010, labs in the state’s hospitals have mostly been excluded from its network and have lost market share. Recently one community hospital developed an unusual strategy to win back those patients. Last year, Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, opened a stand-alone independent lab company that became a provider in the Anthem network. To date, the independent lab has been gaining patients steadily, hospital officials say.
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXI NO. 14 - October 13, 2014 issue
CEO SUMMARY: In Ohio, a lab director said his lab was not informed directly about its exclusion from the Humana lab network. Lab officials got the word from their client physicians. In Texas, another lab director said Humana cut 35 lab contracts, reportedly because the insurer wanted to steer more test volume to its preferred
