February 24, 2014 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXI No. 3 – February 24, 2014 Issue

Maybe the tough financial environment here in the United States is causing Sonic Healthcare Ltd., one of this nation’s bigger lab players, to be more interested in overseas lab testing opportunities. On February 18, its CEO, Colin Goldschmidt, M.D., told investors that “We contin…

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Continuing Uncertainty For California Lab Firms

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XVIII No. 3 – February 28, 2011 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: In its ongoing initiative to determine if clinical labs in California have violated the lowest-price regulation, the California Department of Health Care Services is preparing to send out revised letters to as many as 300 laboratory companies in the state. The letters will as…

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Judge Rules Against FTC In Westcliff Laboratory Case

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XVIII No. 3 – February 28, 2011 Issue

IN A COURT RULING THAT WENT AGAINST the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week, Laboratory Corporation of America may have moved one step closer to completing its acquisition of Westcliff Medical Laboratories, Inc., of Santa Ana, California. On Fe…

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Expect Changes in How Calif. Labs Set Test Prices

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XVIII No. 2 – February 7, 2011 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: What a difference two years makes. Back in April 2009, when then-Attorney General Jerry Brown joined the whistleblower lawsuit alleging that seven or more California lab companies had violated state law on pricing provider services, the popular wisdom among lab execu…

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Discounted Lab Prices Become Issue in California

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XVII No. 18 – December 27, 2010 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: For decades, California’s lab testing market has been considered the Wild West because clinical lab companies have felt relatively free to offer deeply-discounted prices to expand market share and take business away from competitors. Now these discounted pricing pr…

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FTC Opposes LabCorp’s Acquisition of Westcliff

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XVII No. 17 – December 6, 2010 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: On November 30, FTC commissioners filed an administrative complaint opposing Laboratory Corporation of America’s acquisition of Westcliff Medical Laboratories, Inc., on the grounds that it “violates antitrust laws and would lead to higher prices and lower quality…

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October 25, 2010 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XVII No. 15 – October 25, 2010 Issue

Southern California’s always-crazy lab testing marketplace has a new laboratory competitor. In recent months, Richard Nicholson re-entered the business by acquiring West Pacific Medical Laboratory, based in Santa Fe Springs, California. He is assembling a team of experienced profes…

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October 4, 2010 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XVII No. 14 – October 4, 2010 Issue

In Hawaii, two competing clinical laboratory companies have joined forces to save a medical technologist (MT) training program from closure. Together, Clinical Laboratories of Hawaii, LLP (CLH–owned by Sonic Healthcare), and Diagnostic Laboratory Services, …

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California Pathologist Wins Medi-Cal Pay Case

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XVII No. 13 – September 13, 2010 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: It was a case that stretched back several years. Medi-Cal officials, wanting to pursue collection of what it deemed overpayments, claimed that the pathologist who was on the license of two defunct lab companies as medical director was personally liable for the $6.37 …

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Specimen Volume Declines Reported By Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XVII No. 11 – August 2, 2010 Issue

IN REPORTING SECOND QUARTER EARNINGS, there was enough difference in the numbers announced by Quest Diagnostics Incorporated and Laboratory Corporation of America to catch the attention of financial analysts. Revenue at LabCorp was up for the quarter while revenue a…

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