TAG:
laboratory test
UK Postpones Mass COVID Testing Plan Due to Questions of Accuracy
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXVII, No. 18 – December 28, 2020 Issue
IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, A MASS COVID-19 TESTING PLAN called “Operation Moonshot” is on hold until at least the end of January. Under the plan, health ministers sought to increase daily SARS-CoV-2 testing from 430,000 to 10 million Englanders per day. …
OIG Says Medicare Spending On Testing Increased in 2019
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXVII, No. 18 – December 28, 2020 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: Newly-released data indicates that Medicare officials are falling far short of their goal to decrease the total amount of money spent annually on Part B clinical laboratory tests. That is one finding by the federal Office of the Inspector General in its report of Medica…
NorDx Lab Started COVID Preparation in 2019
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXVII, No. 17 – December 7, 2020 Issue
This is an excerpt of a 2,995-word article in the December 7, 2020 issue of THE DARK REPORT (TDR). The full article is available to members of The Dark Intelligence Group. CEO SUMMARY: In a remarkable example of prescience, informed by decades-long experience in clinical lab testin…
One Genetic Test CPT Code Earns ‘Fraudomatic’ Title
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXVII, No. 17 – December 7, 2020 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: Several genetic testing companies have noticed that some of the nation’s Medicare Administrative Contractors (MAC) pay about $2,000 for test claims billed with CPT code 81408. From 2018 through and 2019, the number of 81408 claims rose dramatically at just two of thes…
Memphis Path Lab Pivots to COVID, Pooled Testing
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXVII, No. 17 – December 7, 2020 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: When routine testing volume declined sharply last winter and spring, one of the nation’s largest anatomic pathology groups added testing for COVID-19 and boosted revenue significantly. Since then, the laboratory has become the first in the nation to gain an Emergency …
NorDx Lab Started to Prepare for COVID-19 Testing in 2019
By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXVII, No. 17 – December 7, 2020 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: In a remarkable example of prescience, informed by decades-long experience in clinical lab testing and past epidemics, the president of NorDx Laboratories in Maine saw the December news accounts of a widespread outbreak of a new respiratory disease in China. He warned h…
CMS Sends Cease/Desist Letters to Labs Lacking CLIA Certificates
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXVII, No. 17 – December 7, 2020 Issue
CLINICAL LABORATORIES DOING COVID-19 TESTING and lacking the proper CLIA certificates to do so are receiving cease-and-desist letters from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The first letters were sent on Aug. 12 and le…
December 7, 2020 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXVII, No. 17 – December 7, 2020 Issue
Supply chain issues associated with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic are about to disrupt testing for other infectious diseases, ranging from strep throat and pneumonia to sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs). That was one important finding from the American Society for Microbiology’s (ASM) November …
Pooled COVID Testing a Success for New York Hospital Lab
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXVII, Number 16 – November 16, 2020 Issue
This is an excerpt of a 1,552-word article in the November 16, 2020 issue of THE DARK REPORT (TDR). The full article is available to members of The Dark Intelligence Group. CEO SUMMARY: Pooled COVID testing helps the clinical lab staff at the hospital in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., do …
California Builds Its Own COVID Lab: $25 Million or $1.7 Billion?
By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXVII, Number 16 – November 16, 2020 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: California dropped a bomb on the state’s existing network of hospital labs and independent clinical labs when, on Oct. 30, it announced it had built and opened a new laboratory facility in Valencia designed to perform 150,000 COVID-19 tests per day. Now, existing labs…
CURRENT ISSUE

Volume XXVII, No. 18 – December 28, 2020
There are several surprises in The Dark Report’s annual list of the Top 10 Lab Stories for 2020. Despite the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic dominating every aspect of clinical care, social life, and economic activities since March, at least one major health insurer pushed ahead with two major policies governing how labs can submit claims. In another big story, for the first time in decades, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law were revised with new final rules. Also, Medicare lab test spending increased in 2019 despite PAMA cuts.
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