TAG:
private payer
Diagnostic Errors Get Attention As Next Patient Safety Goal
PHYSICIAN LEADERS IN PATIENT SAFETY are turning up the heat on doctors to reduce the incidence of diagnostic errors. This is a topic few dared to openly discuss until recently. It is directly linked to Medicare and private payer efforts to crack down on medical errors. This development has profound …
Unprecedented Times Lie Ahead For Labs
CEO SUMMARY: Here’s a lab industry first: insight and analysis about why hospital/health system laboratories are already feeling the financial pinch as their parent organizations scramble to conserve and accumulate cash. That’s bad news for IVD vendors and other lab industry …
Are Labs To Be Punished for Vitamin D Testing?
HERE’S AN INTERESTING QUESTION: Are labs to be punished because patients want to know if their Vitamin D levels are sufficient? Consider this: THE DARK REPORT predicted last year that labs might suffer a backlash from payers as a result of increased demand for Vitamin D testing. In a briefing titl…
Medicare Carrier Proposes No Pay for Vitamin D Test
CEO SUMMARY: Medicare contractor NGS wants to end payment to labs and physicians for routine Vitamin D testing. In a proposed local coverage determination (LCD), the Medicare carrier says it would cover Vitamin D testing only for patients with chronic kidney disease, osteomalacia…
Local Labs Have Opportunities To Increase MC Patient Access
CEO SUMMARY: Although the nation’s two largest laboratory companies have achieved a dominant managed care position, opportunities remain for regional labs to do more business with managed care plans. Two experts provide an update of managed care pricing trends for labo…
Illinois Pathologists Dodge Medicaid CP Payment Cut
CEO SUMMARY: Pathologists in Illinois acted swiftly to this month’s announcement that the Illinois Medicaid program would cease to directly pay pathologists directly for clinical pathology professional services. The new policy was to take effect on October 1, 2008. As t…
Canadian Pathologists Start PT Testing for ER/PR
CEO SUMMARY: Experts point out that widely publicized episodes of lab testing deficiencies in several provinces are signs that chronic underfunding of lab testing services is a key factor in these failures. To restore public confidence in breast cancer testing, the Canadian Association of…
Lab Testing Hits Two Home Runs For Patients
MANY OF US POINT OUT THAT LABORATORY MEDICINE is an undervalued and under-utilized asset within the American healthcare system. Lab testing is generally a minimal cost relative to the total episode of care, yet lab testing provides essential knowledge to help clinicians make a quick, accurate diagnos…
Vitamin D Test Volumes Doubled in Past Year
CEO SUMMARY: Across the nation, labs report a near doubling in the volume of vitamin D tests they are performing. This is a success for laboratory medicine and an appropriate use of diagnostics tests as physicians strive for early detection and early intervention of vitamin D deficiency. …
NPI Rules Slow Payments to Pathology Groups, Labs
CEO SUMMARY: New rules requiring use of National Provider Identification (NPI) numbers took effect on May 23. Since then, Medicare carriers and payers nationwide have rejected claims from pathologists and other providers that do not comply with the new NPI rules. A missing NPI on just one…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 14 – October 6, 2025
The Dark Report examines increasing healthcare costs for employers and how clinical labs can help those employers. Also, an in-depth case study shows how one hospital system regained its outreach program after originally ceding it to a national lab company, adding millions to the system’s bottom line.
See the full table of contentsHow Much Laboratory Business Intelligence Have You Missed?
Lab leaders rely on THE DARK REPORT for actionable intelligence on important developments in the business of laboratory testing. Maximize the money you make-and the money you keep! Best of all, it is released every three weeks!
Sign up for TDR Insider
Join the Dark Intelligence Group FREE and get TDR Insider FREE!
Never miss a single update on the issues that matter to you and your business.