What’s Behind Joint Commission Move to Not Accept COLA Labs?

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXX No. 2 – January 23, 2023 Issue

DURING THE NEXT TWO YEARS, a substantial number of hospitals and healthcare facilities will need to respond to The Joint Commission’s (TJC) decision to no longer recognize CLIA accreditations issued by COLA in “TJC-accredited facilities.” In the 30-year history of the current C…

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COLA Re-enters CLIA Accreditation for Pathology

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIX, No. 5 – April 4, 2022 Issue

  CEO SUMMARY: COLA again h…

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September 23, 2019 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXVI No. 13 – September 23, 2019 Issue

Spectra Laboratories, a division of the national dialysis company Fresenius Medical Care, will soon open a new 200,000 square foot laboratory facility in Memphis. The new lab will employ more than 300 people and will be located only 15 minutes from the Memphis Intern…

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Pathologist’s Error and Hospital’s Cover-up Lead to CMS Investigation

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIV No. 13 – September 18, 2017 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: In the latest chapter of an explosive case at the University of Kansas Medical Center that includes claims of a cancer misdiagnosis, an unnecessary surgery, and a cover-up that involves the former chair of pathology, the patient has sued for fraud, negligence, and civil consp…

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Health Insurers Want More Data On Clinical Utility of Molecular, Genetic Tests

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIV No. 4 – March 13, 2017 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Genetic tests that lack two essentials are troublesome for the nation’s health insurers. Those essentials are clinical validity and clinical utility. During a recent webinar, two executives from major health insurers stressed the need for genetic testing labs to provide acc…

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Much Disruption for Labs In 2016’s Top 10 Stories

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIII, No. 17 – December 19, 2016 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Within THE DARK REPORT’S list of the Top 10 Lab Industry Stories for 2016 is one story of disruption that might have been one story of disruption about to happen. The disintegration of Theranos during 2016 is the big story about a self-proclaimed disruptor of the lab indust…

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Lab Benefit Management Bill Advances in FL Senate

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIII, No. 2 – February 8, 2016 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: To date, a bill to restrict how health insurers use lab benefit management systems such as UnitedHealthcare’s BeaconLBS, has been favorably received in the Florida Senate. But the bill may face opposition when presented to the Senate’s Appropriations Committee. In a repor…

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December 7, 2015 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXII, Number 17 – December 7, 2015 Issue

Last week, a joint laboratory accreditation agreement was announced by AABB and the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA). The two associations will now collaborate to allow labs to obtain three assessments under one effort, including AABB accredit…

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March 30, 2015 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXII No. 5 – March 30, 2015 Issue

Last Friday, at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania, members of the health systems’s authority board were given tours of the new $63.4 million clinical laboratory facility. It is scheduled to open on May 4 and will feature the latest state-of-the art analyzers and lab automation system…

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Achieving CLIA, ISO 15189 at Same Time with A2LA

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXII No. 3 – February 17, 2015 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: An interesting milestone for the clinical lab industry is on the horizon. Physicians Choice Laboratory Services in South Carolina will soon become one of the first lab organizations in the United States to earn joint CLIA and ISO 15189 accreditations with the America…

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