Oct 24, 2016 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Early results are promising and this technology could lead to a clinical laboratory test that would give microbiologists and pathologists a new tool for helping diagnose infections
Infectious disease physicians and clinical laboratory scientists will be interested to learn that researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine recently developed a new blood test that can identify whether the source of an infection is bacterial or viral.
These findings were published in Science Translational Medicine in July. The paper was authored by Stanford staff members Timothy Sweeney, MD, PhD, and Purvesh Khatri, PhD, Assistant Professor (Research) of Medicine (Biomedical Informatics Research-ITI Institute) and of Biomedical Data Science. Hector Wong, MD, of the University of Cincinnati was the third co-author of the study.
These findings are timely because, starting on January 1, 2017, hospitals and health systems will need to implement more rigorous antimicrobial stewardship programs to comply with new requirements of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and The Joint Commission (TJC). A clinical laboratory test that makes it easier to determine whether the cause of an infection is bacterial or viral would be a welcome tool for physicians, pharmacists, pathologists, and microbiologists involved in a hospital’s infection control program. (more…)
Oct 21, 2016 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
With record attendance of 300 Lean-Six Sigma experts, this week’s conference was a high-energy event that provided medical lab professionals and pathologists with case studies of how to improve lab operations and contribute to better patient care
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS—Yesterday was the conclusion of the 10th Annual Lab Quality Confab, which showcased innovators in clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups. Attendees traveled here from six different countries.
One new trend that emerged from this year’s presentations is that progressive medical labs are beginning to direct their Lean-Six Sigma, and process improvement efforts toward projects designed to add value to client physicians and hospitals. These projects include added-value features of benefit to patients and health insurers.
How Clinical Laboratories Are Succeeding with Lean Projects
This is a shift from prior years. At earlier Lab Quality Confabs, most speakers were describing how their labs were using Lean and quality management methods to improve workflow within their labs, increase the productivity of automation and staff, reduce errors, and cut costs. This was an “inside-the-lab” mindset.
That was not the case here in New Orleans this week. Yes, there were plenty of sessions where workflow redesign, productivity improvement, and cost reduction were discussed. But, at the same time, a significant number of labs doing presentations were describing projects that took the lab team outside of their laboratory to engage with physicians and nurses specifically to help them use clinical laboratory test data in ways that would improve patient care, reduce length-of-stay for hospital patients, and trigger worthwhile reductions of the cost of care. This is an “outside-the-lab” mindset. (more…)
Oct 7, 2016 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Startup medical company proposes to offer free genetic testing to 100,000 advanced cancer patients to increase their chances for optimum therapeutic results
Strata Oncology (Strata), a precision medicine company based in Ann Arbor, Mich., plans to provide free genetic testing to advanced cancer patients beginning in 2017. The company raised $12-million dollars and teamed up with Thermo Fisher Scientific to complete the large-scale tumor sequencing project.
Using tumor tissue, Strata’s gene test sequences DNA and RNA to identify patients with certain gene mutations. This information is used to determine which cancer medications would be best for each patient. Patients are then referred to the appropriate pharmaceutical company for drug therapy and, potentially, for customized clinical trials.
Strata states on their website that their goal is to “dramatically expand late-stage cancer patients’ access to tumor sequencing and precision medicine trials, and to accelerate the approval and availability of breakthrough cancer medicines.” (more…)
Aug 10, 2016 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Findings of this HCCI study, may increase pressure for more transparency in clinical laboratory and pathology test prices
Consumers in states with high healthcare costs may spend more than twice as much for common medical procedures as patients in other states. That’s a surprise finding in a milestone report from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI). The report also revealed that pathology and clinical laboratory tests are among the services with the widest price fluctuations. Prices also were shown to vary significantly within individual states.
The HCCI study is the latest salvo in the battle to provide consumers with healthcare price transparency and likely will increase demands on clinical laboratories and pathology groups to make lab test prices easy to find and understand.
HCCI Report Identifies Wide Variance in Prices of Clinical Laboratory Tests (more…)
Aug 1, 2016 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Clinical laboratories and pathology groups feel the impact of many of the Center’s demonstration projects that move healthcare toward value-based reimbursement
One perennial criticism of this nation’s healthcare system is that it is slow to innovate. Technologies and management principals widely adopted by many industries may take a decade or longer to gain acceptance by hospitals, physicians, and clinical laboratories.
To encourage faster adoption by useful technologies and innovations by providers, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has a section that is not well known. This part of the law, passed in 2010, created the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation.
The Innovation Center was included in the ACA legislation for the purpose of testing “innovative payment and service delivery models to reduce program expenditures … while preserving or enhancing the quality of care” for Medicare, Medicaid, or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) beneficiaries.” (more…)
Jul 18, 2016 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
Analysis shows new rule requires data gathering effort that favors larger medical laboratories and thus threatens community labs that serve smaller towns and rural areas
When The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued their Final Rule for lab test market price reporting under the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA) last month, it put the clinical laboratory industry on a path that will have significant financial consequences for all labs, whether large or small. Some experts believe this will be the most disruptive event to the medical laboratory industry in the past 30 years.
By now, the story is well known among pathologists and clinical laboratory directors. That story comes from CMS, which issued the Medicare Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Tests Payment System Final Rule—AKA the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS)—that directly affects clinical labs. Under this Final Rule, published in the Federal Register, June 17, 2016, “laboratories and physician offices are required to report private payer rate and volume data if they have more than $12,500 in Medicare revenues from laboratory services on the CLFS and they receive more than 50% of their Medicare revenues from laboratory and physician services during a data collection period. Laboratories will collect private payer data from January 1, 2016 through June 30, 2016 and report it to CMS by March 31, 2017.
“The first data reporting period (that is, the period during which data from the collection period will be submitted to CMS) will be from January 1, 2017, through March 31, 2017. All subsequent data collection and reporting periods for CDLTs [Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Tests], except for ADLTs [Advanced Diagnostic Laboratory Tests], will follow this same data collection and reporting schedule, every three years. Reporting of private payer rates for ADLTs will occur on the same schedule except it will be on an annual basis,” states the Final Rule. (more…)
