This is an excerpt of a 1,460-word article in the Jan. 6, 2020 issue of THE DARK REPORT (TDR). The full article is available to members of The Dark Intelligence Group.
CEO SUMMARY: Here are early insights about a federal compliance reform that has not gotten much attention among clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology managers. CMS
By Pamela Scherer McLeod, from the Volume XXVII No. 1 – January 6, 2020 issue
WHEN AN ANATOMIC PATHOLOGY GROUP CONSIDERS IMPLEMENTING digital pathology and whole-slide imaging (WSI) for primary diagnosis, it must identify and understand a range of challenges and opportunities.
“Every pathology group should start by considering how it will use the related technologies of a digital pathology (DP) system and whole-slide imaging,” said Liron Pantanowitz, MD, Vice Chair
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXVII No. 1 – January 6, 2020 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Among hospital administrators, the popular wisdom is that their clinical lab is a cost center. This thinking leads them to consider drastic cost-management strategies that include partnering with commercial labs to manage in-hospital lab testing and the outright sale of lab outreach programs. On the other side of this debate, innovative health system
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXVII No. 1 – January 6, 2020 issue
CEO SUMMARY: When CMS and the OIG issued proposed rules last fall to make it easier for providers to participate in value-based and coordinated care arrangements, they considered excluding clinical labs, pharma companies, and DME firms because of concerns that the proposed rules could promote lab test fraud. Now, labs will have to wait for
By Mary Van Doren, from the Volume XXVI No. 17 – December 16, 2019 issue
This is an excerpt of a 3,163-word article in the Dec. 16, 2019 issue of THE DARK REPORT (TDR). The full article is available to members of The Dark Intelligence Group.
CEO SUMMARY: There was plenty of bad news in 2019 for clinical labs and pathology groups. Yet lurking inside this news are clear opportunities –
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXVI No. 17 – December 16, 2019 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Two lawsuits filed in federal courts against Laboratory Corporation of America and Quest Diagnostics may have consequences for the entire lab industry. The plaintiffs are patients who allege that the two defendant lab companies charged them as much as 10 times more than what Medicare, Medicaid, or commercial health plans charged. Allegations include overcharging,
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXVI No. 17 – December 16, 2019 issue
CEO SUMMARY: There are both surprises and several valuable insights to be harvested from THE DARK REPORT’s “Top 10 Lab Industry Stories for 2019.” Financially, 2019 proved to be a tough year for both clinical labs and anatomic pathology groups in the United States. One reason is because Medicare and private payers continue to use
By R. Lewis Dark, from the Volume XXVI No. 17 – December 16, 2019 issue
Is it a coincidence that a number of uninsured consumers filed separate lawsuits in federal courts against Laboratory Corporation of America and Quest Diagnostics—alleging, in both cases, that they were overcharged for clinical laboratory tests—just months before the federal government published final rules requiring hospitals and other providers to publish their prices?
Last month, the federal Centers
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXVI No. 16 – November 25, 2019 issue
Medicare lab test price cuts mandated by the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) are eroding the finances of urology groups that do in-office clinical laboratory testing. In the November issue of Urology Times, urologist Robert A. Dowling, MD, wrote a news story that identified the cuts in Medicare Part B prices for the lab tests
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXVI No. 16 – November 25, 2019 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Court documents filed in U.S. District courts in New Jersey and North Carolina provide details about how each of the two lab companies set lab test prices differently—as much as 10 times higher—for cash-paying patients than for patients who have Medicare, Medicaid, or commercial health insurance plans. In court filings, plaintiffs allege that
