TAG:
the laboratory
Congress Again Considers Co-Insurance for Lab Tests
CEO SUMMARY: Congressional cost-cutters are putting the 20% patient co-pay/coinsurance requirement for lab testing back on the table. The added complication this year is that the new Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction is mandated to produce its own list of cuts to the Me…
Why Canada Has Growing Shortage of Pathologists
CEO SUMMARY: In Canada, it is known that the supply of pathologists and laboratory physicians has diminished since 1998. Further, a federal program that measures patient wait times for certain surgical and imaging procedures does not measure how long patients wait for ana…
Tougher Financial Times Ahead for Lab Industry
THE YEARS 2008 THROUGH 2010 WERE TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES for all healthcare providers, including clinical laboratories and pathology groups. Moreover, although the deepest recession in 30 years was declared over by mid-2009, many hospitals continue to struggle financially and the national unemployment r…
Destructive Tornado Hits Joplin Hospital, Lab Rebuilds Swiftly
CEO Summary: One week after one of the worst storms ever to strike a hospital in the U.S., St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri, was back treating patients. Surprisingly, the hospital’s lab was one of the first departments to get up and running again. Within…
DMetrix, Bio-Reference Labs, US Clinical Labs, Vidalia Laboratory Services
DMETRIX PREPARES TO INTRODUCE CHEAPER PATHOLOGY SCANNER PATHOLOGISTS MAY SOON BE ABLE TO PURCHASE a smaller and less expensive digital scanning system that fits on a microscope. DMetrix, Inc., of Tucson, Arizona, is working to downsize its flagship digital p…
Michigan’s JVHL Partners With AMA to Use LOINC
CEO SUMMARY: Office-based physicians in Michigan can use a program offered by the American Medical Association (AMA) to get assistance in adapting their electronic medical record (EMR) systems to utilize LOINC for lab test ordering and lab test results reporting. This service is …
Will Lawsuits Re-shape Current Lab Practices?
CEO SUMMARY: Recent events in California, triggered by a lab whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2005 and unsealed in 2009, provide the latest example of how these lawsuits and related government enforcement actions can cause fundamental changes in the pricing and marketing p…
What Future for Deeply-Discounted Lab Prices?
IN THE LABORATORY TESTING INDUSTRY, there is probably no single issue that causes more rancor than the regular use of deeply-discounted pricing of laboratory tests by a certain cohort of laboratory companies. This fault line in our industry is quite distinct. Those managers and pathologists in lab o…
Labs Learn About ACOs And Medical Homes
IN JUST SEVEN MONTHS, the age of accountable care organizations (ACO) begins. On January 1, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will commence contracting with ACOs. ACOs are one of the major reforms spelled out in the 2,700-page health reform law that President Obama si…
WellSpan’s Lab Designs the “Ideal” Phlebotomy
CEO SUMMARY: Lengthy wait times for patients at phlebotomy sites is a common problem for labs across the country. But the laboratory at WellSpan Health System in York, Pennsylvania decided to apply Lean methods to change this situation. Their Lean projects at two pilot patient se…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXIII, No. 4 – March 23, 2026
A federal court ruling has established a safe harbor for clinical labs when they run tests ordered by physicians. Lab leaders should examine this briefing for pitfalls. Also, it turns out that providers may be ordering inappropriate vitamin D tests, according to one expert.
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