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Pathology group
A pathology group is an organization of clinical pathologists working on the diagnosis of disease based on laboratory analysis of bodily fluids such as blood and urine, as well as tissues, using the tools of chemistry, clinical microbiology, hematology and molecular pathology. Clinical pathologists work in close collaboration with medical technologists, hospital administrations, and referring physicians.
The business model of a pathology group has traditionally been as a private group practice, including solo practitioner, medical group partnership, professional corporation (PC), limited liability company (LLC), and similar professional business organizations. It is common for pathology groups to have contracts with one or more hospitals to provide anatomic pathology professional services and clinical pathology professional services.
Pathology itself is a significant component of the causal study of disease and a major field in modern medicine and diagnosis. The term pathology may be used broadly to refer to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of bioscience research fields and medical practices, or more narrowly to describe work within the contemporary medical field of “general pathology,” which includes a number of distinct but inter-related medical specialties which diagnose disease mostly through the analysis of tissue, cell, and body fluid samples.
Pathologists in hospital labs and pathology groups practice as consultant physicians, developing and applying knowledge of tissue and laboratory analyses to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of individual patients. As scientists, they use the tools of laboratory science in clinical studies, disease models, and other experimental systems, to advance the understanding and treatment of disease.
Clinical pathologists in a pathology group administer a number of visual and microscopic tests and an especially large variety of tests of the biophysical properties of tissue samples involving automated analyzers and cultures. Sometimes the general term “laboratory medicine specialist” is used to refer to those working in clinical pathology, including medical doctors, PhDs and doctors of pharmacology.
Immunopathology, the study of an organism’s immune response to infection, is sometimes considered to fall within the domain of clinical pathology.
Becoming a pathologist entails one of the lengthiest education and training tracks of all physicians. Requirements include four years of undergraduate study, plus four years of medical school, plus a minimum of four to five years of post-graduate training in pathology residency.
Understanding COVID-19’s Changes to Lab Industry
CEO SUMMARY: With the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic about to enter its eighth month in the United States, it remains difficult to predict whether the pandemic will strengthen with the fall influenza season or steadily diminish. What is clear to most pathologists and clinical laboratory executiv…
Franciscan Missionaries Sells Lab Outreach Business to LabCorp
SINCE THE ONSET OF THE PANDEMIC IN LATE FEBRUARY, the nation’s two largest clinical lab companies have announced only two acquisitions of hospital laboratory outreach programs, one in June and one this month. Last week, LabCorp announced its acquisition of the clinical ambu…
Specimen Volume Returns at Dallas-based ProPath
CEO SUMMARY: Like other physician specialties, anatomic pathology saw a dramatic collapse in the number of daily procedures with a corresponding decline in cash flow as the COVID-19 pandemic hit with full force in March, April, and May. The good news is that the daily volume of tissue…
Wisconsin Lab Network Feeds Valuable Data to State Health Lab
CEO SUMMARY: From the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 138-member Wisconsin Clinical Laboratory Network has reported to the state health lab the number of COVID-19 tests, the number of positive results, as well as other data that includes data on lab testing supplies and ca…
Proposed Medicare 2021 PFS Cuts Pathology Fees by 9%
IF THE PROPOSED MEDICARE 2012 PHYSICIAN FEE SCHEDULE (PFS) RULE—published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Aug. 4—takes effect as currently written, pathology professional fees will be cut by 9%, effective Jan. 1, 2021. This was not…
August 24, 2020 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
Currently at least 15 veterinary laboratories in the United States perform COVID-19 tests. This fact was confirmed by Adm. Brett Giroir, MD, the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), during an interview last month conducted by CNN. Officials at HHS confi…
UHC Ready to Implement New Lab Test Registry
CEO SUMMARY: UnitedHealthcare announced that its new Test-Registry Protocol will become effective on Jan. 1, 2021, creating a major billing hurdle for labs and pathology groups. By that date, a lab must register each type of test before it can submit claims for these tests to the nati…
UHC Issues Details about How Labs Register Tests
CEO SUMMARY: As of January 1, UnitedHealthcare will require all clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups to register every type of test before labs can bill for those tests. Not only is the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting normal activity, but the administrative burden UHC is i…
FDA Says 8 of 11 Tests Fail in Serology Test Review
This is an excerpt of a 1,970-word article in the June 22, 2020 issue of THE DARK REPORT (TDR). The full article is available to members of The Dark Intelligence Group. CEO SUMMARY: After introducing some 200 serological assays onto the market in March and April with little or no review,…
Where Is the FDA When Labs Need It Most?
LET’S START WITH AN ESSENTIAL FACT: in the management of almost every outbreak of a novel infectious disease, clinical laboratory tests will be essential in diagnosis of the disease, in monitoring the progress of an infected patient, and in determining if, once cured, a patient has immunity to tha…
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Volume XXVII No. 13 – September 14, 2020
THE DARK REPORT IS VIEWING THE FUTURE of the lab industry, and it’s clear that things will be different post-pandemic. Four trends will take shape in the coming months and years which lab professionals must bear in mind as they wrestle with everything the pandemic has wrought. Also, lab industry entrepreneurs are leveraging the pandemic situation in ways that lab managers must be aware of in order to secure their organization’s own position in the industry.
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