By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXVI No. 11 – August 12, 2019 issue
IT’S OFFICIAL! A YEAR-LONG COLLABORATION involving a health insurer, a clinical laboratory, and an analytics company showed that insurers and physicians can use clinically-actionable intelligence developed from medical lab test data to improve patient outcomes.
This important accomplishment in patient care comes with another significant milestone: The health insurer is paying the lab outside of the
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXVI No. 8 – June 10, 2019 issue
CEO SUMMARY: It may be without precedent in the clinical lab industry that a laid-off lab manager launches a nonprofit mobile phlebotomy service in order to continue services to homebound patients, nursing homes, and long-term care facilities. The events in the Quad Cities of Moline, Ill. and Davenport, Iowa, are also the most recent example
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXVI No. 8 – June 10, 2019 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Today, insurers get risk-adjusted payments for treating patients who have high-cost health conditions and they make risk-adjusted payments to physicians, hospitals, and other providers. At Northwell Health, the clinical lab saw the opportunity to leverage lab test data with other clinical and demographic data to identify patients who were undiagnosed or whose conditions were
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXVI No. 7 – May 20, 2019 issue
Canada faces a similar shortage of medical technologists (MTs) as exists in the United States. “We have reached the point now where some laboratories have been closed for weeks due to insufficient staffing, which is a cascading problem for patients and the healthcare system,” stated Maria Klement, President of the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXVI No. 7 – May 20, 2019 issue
Pathologists and medical laboratory professionals the world over had a surprise on May 13 if they used Google for an Internet search. The doodle on the Google search home page honored pathologist Dr. Georgios Papanicolaou, who developed the Pap smear test used to screen for cervical cancer.
Papanicolaou was born in 1883 in Greece. He studied medicine in Greece and
This is an excerpt from a 1,900-word article in the April 29, 2019 issue of THE DARK REPORT. The full article is available to members of The Dark Intelligence Group.
CEO SUMMARY: A new UnitedHealthCare (UHC) preferred lab network will launch July 1 with seven lab companies. In an April 22 announcement, UHC said physicians and
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXVI No. 6 – April 29, 2019 issue
CEO SUMMARY: UnitedHealthcare will launch a new preferred laboratory network with seven lab companies on July 1. In an April 22 announcement, UHC said physicians and consumers may continue to use its existing network of more than 300 labs currently in-network. One goal is to give patients a choice of labs based on price with
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXVI No. 4 – March 18, 2019 issue
CEO SUMMARY: In Florida, the Blue Cross Blue Shield contract is coming up for renewal and the question is whether it will renew as exclusive to one national lab company. But Florida is not the only state where BCBS plans are planning to issue new contracts. Among the Blues plans that may ask for proposals
By Mary Van Doren, from the Volume XXVI No. 1 – January 14, 2019 issue
CEO SUMMARY: This will be one of the most challenging years facing the clinical lab industry since the early 1990s. The CMS scheme to collect private payer lab test prices and use that data to set Medicare clinical laboratory test prices is proving to be an indiscriminate tool that is poised to undermine the financial integrity of many labs,
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXVI No. 1 – January 14, 2019 issue
CEO SUMMARY: In Toledo, Ohio, ProMedica Laboratories uses extensive metrics to analyze almost all processes in the lab. Under a process improvement program in place for more than five years, the lab has implemented daily management to help streamline day-to-day operations. Concurrently, a newly-formed cross-functional test utilization team adopted recommendations from the Choosing Wisely campaign
