By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXIV, No. 14 – October 9, 2017 issue
ON SEPT. 22, MEDICARE OFFICIALS RELEASED THE DRAFT PRICES for the 2018 Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule. The bad news for the lab industry is that the fee cuts are deeper than the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had predicted earlier.
The price cuts to clinical laboratory test fees will total $670 million in 2018.
This is an excerpt from a 1,400-word article in the Sept. 18, 2017 issue of THE DARK REPORT. The complete article is available for a limited time to all readers, and available at all times to paid members of the Dark Intelligence Group.
CEO SUMMARY: Is this a sign that the rampant fraud and abuse in
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXIV, No. 13 – September 18, 2017 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Two toxicology lab companies accused of fraud are fighting to stay in business. In the case of Medicus Laboratories of Dallas, it is asking a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent state and federal lab regulators from pulling its CLIA license. At Proove Biosciences of Irvine, Calif., following a
By R. Lewis Dark, from the Volume XXIV, No. 8 – June 5, 2017 issue
TODAY, THE LAB INDUSTRY FACES A CONTRADICTION when setting prices for individual lab tests. At one extreme, a certain sector of labs seeking to win exclusive managed care contracts sets high-volume routine test prices at or below the fully-loaded cost to perform those tests. At another extreme, laboratory companies with specialty molecular and genetic tests
By Bill Dugan, from the Volume XXIV, No. 4 – March 13, 2017 issue
This is an excerpt from a 1,021-word article in the March 13, 2017, issue of THE DARK REPORT. The complete article is available for a limited time to all readers, and available at all times to paid members of the Dark Intelligence Group.
CEO SUMMARY: Is this year’s early spate of deals involving the sales of hospital lab outreach
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXIV, No. 4 – March 13, 2017 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Is the New Year’s spate of deals involving the sales of hospital lab outreach programs and a new joint venture the first tremors of an impending earthquake of similar transactions? In the first 10 weeks of 2017, Laboratory Corporation of America, Quest Diagnostics, and Sonic Healthcare announced significant agreements to purchase sizeable hospital
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXIII No. 17 – December 19, 2016 issue
CEO SUMMARY: In the United States, medical labs have long recognized that paying over-market rates to lease phlebotomy space in physicians’ officers is an inducement and a violation of federal anti-kickback laws. In Australia, a law in 2010 that removed the cap on what labs could pay to lease phlebotomy space in physicians’ offices caused
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 industry that finds itself struggling just
By Mary Van Doren, from the Volume XXIII No. 14 – October 17, 2016 issue
This is an excerpt from a 1,200-word article in the October 17 issue of THE DARK REPORT. The complete article is available for a limited time to all readers, and available at all times to paid members of the Dark Intelligence Group.
CEO SUMMARY: In this breaking story, THE DARK REPORT analyzes the news that UnitedHealthCare will bring
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXIII No. 14 – October 17, 2016 issue
CEO SUMMARY: With a quiet announcement this month that it was bringing its laboratory benefit management program to Texas on March 1, 2017, UnitedHealthcare is taking on a big challenge. Enrollment in UHC’s commercial plans in Texas is 4.3 million. That is twice the two million commercial plan members UHC has in Florida, where it
