By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 8 – May 29, 2018 issue
LAST WEEK, A FEDERAL JUDGE in South Carolina issued an order imposing civil damages and penalties of more than $114 million on Tonya Mallory, the former CEO of Health Diagnostic Laboratory, in Richmond, Va., and two owners of the lab’s marketing partner, BlueWave Healthcare Consultants Inc. The damages and penalties were imposed on the defendants
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 8 – May 29, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: While Theranos was a darling of the business and national media, Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou was hearing troubling reports about patients who got incongruent lab results that put them at risk for inappropriate medical treatments. His investigation of Theranos and its celebrated founder, Elizabeth Holmes, revealed that the company’s much-touted lab
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 7 – May 7, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: For medical directors and pathologists interested in improving their labs’ compliance with CLIA regulations, a report from federal and state inspectors of an inspection of the pathology lab at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center offers insights into what issues caught the inspectors’ attention. During their visit in February, the government lab inspectors
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 7 – May 7, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Innovative clinical labs and pathology groups are absorbing this year’s Medicare Part B price cuts while continuing to pursue opportunities to add value. A common theme from many speakers at last week’s Executive War College in New Orleans is that the lab must get mastery of its LIS and informatics specifically to enable
By R. Lewis Dark, from the Volume XXV No. 7 – May 7, 2018 issue
WE’VE JUST FINISHED A FASCINATING WEEK IN NEW ORLEANS, at the 23rd annual Executive War College. More than 820 lab leaders were present to hear 104 interesting speakers in 65 unique sessions. Collectively, this group represented as much as $20 billion in annual clinical lab and pathology revenue.
These statistics are important for a strategic planning
By maryv
CEO SUMMARY: In response to information the staff provided to Wake Forest Baptist Hospital’s risk manager last fall, and following a federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services inspection in February, CMS describes deficiencies found as “an immediate jeopardy to the health and safety of patients” at the 885-bed hospital. THE DARK REPORT’s analysis shows
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 6 – April 16, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Several developments have moved the case forward since December when the American Clinical Laboratory Association filed suit in federal court against the Department of Health and Human Services. Inrecent weeks, ACLA filed for summary judgment; HHS responded with its own request for summary judgment; and most recently ACLA filed its rebuttal to the
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXV No. 6 – April 16, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: In response to information the pathology lab staff provided to the hospital’s risk manager last fall, and following a federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services inspection in February, the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is taking corrective action to fix serious deficiencies in its anatomic pathology laboratory. In reports issued in February
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXV No. 6 – April 16, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Discovery of multiple diagnostic errors occurring in an anatomic pathology department triggered a complaint investigation and a 54-page report from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The report shows that Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is reviewing more than 9,000 pathology cases to identify incorrect cancer diagnoses. Last month, the medical
By R. Lewis Dark, from the Volume XXV No. 6 – April 16, 2018 issue
MOST PATHOLOGISTS WOULD AGREE THAT PATIENTS AND THEIR PHYSICIANS have every right to expect a timely, accurate lab test result. Stated differently, patients and physicians implicitly trust that a pathology laboratory in the United States will not make errors in specimen processing (technical component) and diagnosis (professional component).
For these reasons, the recent federal Centers for
