Aug 18, 2017 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Rising out-of-pocket healthcare costs could force older clinical laboratory workers to put off retirement plans altogether, even when on Medicare
For the past decade, anatomic pathology laboratory executives have been bracing for an expected avalanche of retiring baby boomer medical technicians, histotechnologists, cytotechnologists, clinical chemists, and pathologists who are reaching retirement age. However, rising out-of-pocket Medicare and other healthcare costs may cause these older medical laboratory professionals to defer full retirement as long as possible, a recent study concludes.
The latest Retiree Healthcare Cost Estimate from Fidelity predicts that the average 65-year-old couple will need to set aside a record $260,000 in today’s dollars for Medicare and all other out-of-pocket medical costs during their retirement years. That’s a 6% jump from 2015 and up 18% from 2014. The average 65-year-old woman can expect to need $135,000 of that total because she is expected to live two years longer than the same age man.
Fidelity blames the $15,000 increase from 2015 costs on seniors’ higher use of medical services, and rapidly rising prescription and specialty drug prices. The cost estimate does not include long-term care coverage, which Fidelity estimates would require an additional $130,000 in savings for an $8,000 maximum monthly benefit spread over three years and including a 3% inflation adjustment per year.
Out-of-Pocket Expenses Create Sticker Shock
Adam Stavisky, Senior Vice President of Fidelity’s Benefits Consulting Services, acknowledges healthcare costs may cause older workers to reconsider their workforce exit strategy.
“The sticker shock of this estimate hopefully reinforces for many people that they need to act now, regardless of their age,” Stavisky states in a Fidelity Viewpoints article. “Rising healthcare expenses are forcing people to make educated decisions now more than ever, ranging from the services they utilize to the age they choose to retire.”
While Medicare is designed to cover most medical expenses in retirement, it does not cover long-term care or other services such as routine dental or vision care. Fidelity estimates a 65-year-old couple would need an additional $130,000 to insure against long-term care expenses. The increased cost of healthcare after retirement is considered by some to be one reason why many clinical laboratory scientists and pathologists of the Baby Boomer Generation may be putting off retirement. (Photo copyright: Medicare.)
While Medicare is designed to cover many healthcare related expenses in retirement, Medicare’s monthly premiums and out-of-pocket costs can be substantial, quickly adding up to $300 or more per month. According to a Commonwealth Fund Issue Brief, a retiree’s monthly premium in 2017 for Medicare Parts A and B is $134, with Medicare Part D (prescription drug coverage) adding $42 to that total. The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation that advocates for higher quality healthcare and accessibility for low-income and elderly Americans.
In addition, higher income beneficiaries pay an “income-related monthly adjustment” to their premiums for Medicare Part B and Medicare prescription drug coverage. Adding to the monthly costs are deductibles and co-pays:
- Medicare Part A, which covers hospitalization, has a $1,316 deductible and potential co-insurance;
- Part B, covering outpatient services, doctors care, preventive services and medical equipment, has a $183 deductible, with 20% co-insurance for most doctors’ visits, inpatient services or durable medical equipment; and
- Medicare Part D’s deductible, which varies by policy, is capped at $400 per year.
The Commonwealth Fund found that “more than one-fourth of all Medicare beneficiaries—15 million people—spend 20% or more of their incomes on premiums plus medical care, including cost-sharing and uncovered services … Overall, beneficiaries spent an average of $3,024 per year on out-of-pocket costs,” the study concluded.
Retirement Cost Gap Affects Pre-retirees
Fidelity’s Retiree Healthcare Cost Estimate underscores how important it is for retirees to understand what Medicare does and doesn’t cover.
“Healthcare is creating a ‘retirement cost gap’ for many pre-retirees,” stated Lee Belniak, Vice President in Fidelity Workplace Investing, in a Fidelity Viewpoints post. “Although many assume their savings will cover all their expenses in retirement, healthcare costs are often higher than anticipated. Many people assume Medicare will cover everything, but it doesn’t. The average 65+ retiree today should expect to pay around $5,000 a year on healthcare premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, and should carefully weigh all options.”
A Medicare supplement (Medigap) plan, from a private insurer is one way to guard against runaway Medicare costs. A Medicare Supplement reduces out-of-pocket expenses when using Medicare Part A or B and may include vision and dental benefits. However, The Commonwealth Fund note in their Issue Brief that Medicare supplement plans are expensive, with premiums averaging $2,000 per year in most areas, but as much as $200 per month in New York City.
Fidelity recommends pre-retirees consider Medicare Advantage, a health insurance program within Medicare Part C, if available in their area. The most common types of Medicare Advantage Plans are:
Medicare Advantage Plans often charge a premium in addition to the Medicare Part B premium, but the plans may pay a higher percentage of claims than Medicare Parts A and B, and provide additional benefits such as routine vision and dental care. While Medicare Advantage plans charge co-payments or co-insurance for covered services, they include an annual out-of-pocket limit. Fidelity notes that, over an extended retirement period, a Medicare Advantage plan could reduce a retiree’s overall healthcare costs.
Most Boomers Not Prepared for Retirement
According to an Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) study on boomer retirement savings and expectations, only 23% of boomers believe their savings will last throughout retirement, and only six in 10 included healthcare costs in their retirement savings projections.
“Baby boomers are not taking full advantage of the resources available to help them achieve a secure and dignified retirement,” IRI President and Chief Executive Officer Cathy Weatherford noted in a press release. “Retirement planning which focuses on holistic strategies, and considers retirement risks such as longevity, healthcare, long-term care, and lifestyle expectations, is the key to ensuring boomers’ financial resources will provide income and security for their lifetimes.”
Clinical laboratory managers and pathology groups should be asking, “How many of our retirement age workers have no intention of retiring any time soon?” If the Fidelity and Commonwealth studies are accurate, the answer to that question could greatly impact how medical laboratories maintain their workforces.
—Andrea Downing Peck
Related Information:
How to Plan for Rising Healthcare Costs
Retire Health Costs Rise
Medicare Beneficiaries’ High Out-of-Pocket Costs: Cost Burdens by Income and Health Status
Baby Boomers’ Challenging Retirement Math
Boomer Expectations for Retirement 2017
Retirees Need $130,000 Just to Cover Healthcare, Study Finds
Jul 31, 2017 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
Sonora Quest Labs and Incyte Diagnostics streamline operations, eliminate data silos, and increase efficiencies using real-time analytics from laboratory-specific CRM
Across the nation, clinical laboratories and anatomic pathologists face two common challenges. One is shrinking lab budgets and less payment for lab tests. The other is the need to maintain physician and patient services at a high level. Both factors are fueling greater interest in lab and healthcare-specific customer relationship management (CRM).
Stated another way, labs and pathology groups are being squeezed by the need to operate on less revenue, while also increasing their quality of customer service to retain existing clients and expand market share. CRMs are a proven way to achieve and sustain superior levels of customer service in a surprisingly cost-effective way. In fact, many labs that implement a CRM find that the return on investment comes swiftly, in just a few months.
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups Hit by Declining Prices, Revenues
“The clinical lab industry is solidly in an era where payers are slashing the prices they pay for lab tests and hospitals—struggling with their own financial problems—are cutting their lab budgets,” observed Robert L. Michel, Editor-in-Chief of The Dark Report, “These factors are motivating lab administrators and pathologists to look for solutions that allow them to run their lab at less cost, while improving staff productivity and customer service.
“This is why first-mover and early-adopter medical labs saw the potential of real-time analytical middleware and lab-specific CRM solutions to help them meet the challenge of running their labs on less money, while simultaneously sustaining superior levels of customer service,” continued Michel. “Every lab manager knows that the path to improved profitability is blocked by poor workflows, time-consuming quality metrics processes, and disconnected sales and customer service teams.”
Innovative medical laboratory managers report that their investment in laboratory-specific CRM systems (also known as healthcare-specific CRM) suddenly gives them access to data that has been locked away within their legacy LIS and other software systems. By unlocking this data in real-time dashboards and reports, they gain competitive advantage in the lab testing marketplace. A healthcare-specific CRM makes it possible to monitor a wide range of activities, including:
- Proactively tracking relations with client physicians;
- Monitoring workflow and lab operations in real time; and
- Gaining a comprehensive view of all sales and customer service activities at both the aggregate and provider levels.
Tracking Key Benchmarks, Productivity, and Accountability
Sonora Quest Laboratories (SQL) of Tempe, Ariz., a joint venture between Banner Health and Quest Diagnostics (NASDAQ:DGX), wanted to reduce the amount of time spent collating reports and performing manual calculations, as well as breaking down cumbersome data silos across the organization in order to streamline communication and collaboration.
Prior to activating a laboratory-specific CRM platform, employees at SQL spent five hours per day pulling key metrics and reports. To move forward with strategic initiatives, the company could not continue to “struggle with endless silos of data and information,” a case study on SQL’s challenges states.
CRM Designed for Medical Laboratories and Pathology Groups
To address these concerns, SQL turned to a laboratory-specific CRM that integrates existing silos and systems into a centralized interface through automated data capturing. The solution provides detailed, real-time dashboards with visibility across the organization. Graphs and charts enable users to:
- Track their progress meeting turnaround time benchmarks;
- Ensure their volume is level-loaded; and
- Track by the hour how many tests are coming in and completed, the case study notes.
The hc1 customer-relationship management (CRM) dashboard (above) provides an easy-to-navigate interface for tracking multiple benchmarks and key workflows for clinical laboratories and healthcare providers. (Image copyright: hc1.)
“The first step was to integrate our LIS [laboratory information system], and our timekeeping, call center metrics, and bench scheduling tools, into the hc1 CRM solution we had installed,” stated Tamara Nelson, Lean Master Black Belt at SQL. “Once that was accomplished, we could build actionable reports to determine where to focus our process improvement efforts.
“Now we can look at high-level trends in lab productivity,” noted Nelson. “We can also drill down to look at every process in our lab by hour, shift, discipline, instrument, and employee to compare time periods and other factors.”
According to the case study about Sonora Quest Laboratories, after its activation of the healthcare CRM, SQL reduced time spent pulling daily performance reports from about five hours per day to just 45 minutes a day. This increased overall employee efficiency by 85%.
SQL’s use of the CRM now makes it possible to:
- Provide real-time financial and operation trend analysis to key stakeholders;
- Use live dashboard and reports to review and manage TAT (turn-around time) benchmarks, utilization, reimbursements, volume, and productivity;
- Track employee productivity across departments to drive accountability; and
- Broadcast reports to immediately notify key stakeholders of any risks, missed benchmarks, or red flags.
Better Way for Clinical Laboratories to Track Client Interactions
Another medical laboratory that benefitted from implementing a laboratory-specific CRM is Incyte Diagnostics of Spokane Valley, Washington. Founded in 1957 by pathologists, Incyte provides anatomic pathology services throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Incyte needed a way to consolidate data coming from the multiple systems used to manage its sales process and payer information. The different systems created a disconnect between departments and, as structured, could only deliver a few real-time insights into volume or revenue shifts, client account activity, marketing campaigns, or sales activities.
Having received 35,000 e-mails from his sales team during the previous two years, Incyte’s Chief Marketing Officer Nate Koenig knew he had to find a better way to track client interactions.
“We needed a better understanding of what was taking place within our clients’ hospitals. To grow, we had to improve. That’s where the CRM solution we selected proved invaluable,” stated Koenig in a case study detailing how Incyte found a solution to tedious workflows and disorganized information tracking.
After adopting a healthcare CRM, Incyte could:
- Help sales reps gain more field time;
- Centralize client information;
- Track sales activities;
- Properly store data; and
- Gain access to real-time analytics.
Anatomic Pathology Lab Exceeded Production Goals and Customer Expectations
According to the case study, by eliminating data silos and streamlining sales operations Incyte was able to:
- Exceed its sales growth goal in 2016 by 107%;
- Retain 99.51% of current business;
- Reduce the overall workload of the client services team 6.25%; and
- Gain 32 additional days of field time for its 17 sales reps.
Both Sonora Quest Laboratories and Incyte, Inc., are examples of how innovative medical laboratories are using informatics to meet the challenges of declining revenue and the need to sustain a high level of customer service. In today’s connected world, those labs that are first to achieve useful integration of their LIS with a CRM will enjoy competitive advantage.
Surviving in this challenging environment means clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups must unlock the power of data informatics to improve their financial performance and better serve providers and patients. To help laboratory leaders reach these goals, The Dark Report recently published a white paper titled, “3 Critical Rules for Surviving in 2017: Your Medical Laboratory’s Guide to Thriving in Today’s Healthcare Landscape.”
This essential resource demonstrates how a laboratory-specific CRM enables medical laboratories to not just survive, but to thrive in today’s healthcare environment, while providing added value to healthcare consumers and providers.
Get your copy of this important asset by clicking on this link. Or, copy this URL into your browser: https://ddaily.wpengine.com/whitepaper/3-critical-rules-for-surviving-in-2017-your-medical-laboratorys-guide-to-thriving-in-todays-healthcare-landscape.
—Andrea Downing Peck
Related Information:
3 Critical Rules for Surviving in 2017: Your Medical Laboratory’s Guide to Surviving in Today’s Healthcare Landscape
How Incyte Dx Eliminated Data Silos and Streamlined Operations to Exceed Sales Growth Targets by 107%
How Sonora Quest Labs Eliminated 4 Hours a Day in Performance Report Work
Clinical Laboratories Turn to Healthcare-Focused CRM to Optimize Operations and Increase Market Share, Despite Decreasing Reimbursement
More Clinical Pathology Laboratories Use Middleware for Business Intelligence and Lab-specific Customer Relationship Management
May 3, 2017 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
No clear trend in pathology industry as to the demand for services versus the supply of pathologists
Healthcare providers often describe themselves at being part of a family of caregivers, and right now, one member, the physician, is under extreme pressure. So much so, experts are calling on other members of the family, such as pathology groups and clinical laboratories, to seek ways to proactively ease the burdens on America’s doctors.
A survey by the Physicians Foundation reveals that 80% of physicians reported being overextended or at capacity, with no time to see additional patients. And the number of physicians considering an early exit from patient-centered roles is increasing. If allowed to continue, such a trend will negatively impact patients’ access to care. (more…)
Apr 19, 2017 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
Pathologists and clinical laboratories should be watching for the arrival of community paramedicine programs in their communities
Studies reveal that a sizeable proportion of 911 medical emergency calls result in an ambulance ride and emergency room visit for a medical condition that is relatively simple and not truly urgent. Recognizing this fact, some innovative health systems are creating a mobile “emergency room” service that can go to the patient’s home, provide appropriate care, and save the time and costs of the ambulance transport and emergency room (ER) visit.
This care model is being called “community paramedicine.” Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers should see this as a new example of how the traditional provision of healthcare services is being rethought. The goal is to combine modern workflow redesign techniques with new information technologies (IT) and medical laboratory tests to improve patient care while eliminating unnecessary cost.
The concept of bringing the ER to the patient’s home is consistent with the US medical industry’s shift toward offsite healthcare, which can include telehealth, to accommodate the growing population of geriatric, house-bound, and remote location patients. That is why programs are being created that allow patients to receive ER care in the comfort of their own homes. (more…)
Apr 12, 2017 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Professional pathologist’s organization in Maharashtra, India, demands that the government’s Directorate of Medical Education and Research intensify enforcement of laws regulating clinical pathology labs, or suspend the director for failing to comply
There are thousands more medical laboratories in India than there are certified pathologists to supervise and direct them. This is becoming a source of conflict. On one side are consumers who want quality medical laboratory testing services they can trust and government regulators who want to enforce the law. On the other side are tens of thousands of lab companies that continue to operate without certified pathologists and other trained lab scientists.
This is why India continues its struggle to provide licensed and registered clinical pathology services to its more than 1.2 billion residents amid a sea of illegal pathology clinics and a government that seems increasingly ineffectual in its ability to protect patients. Frustrations with government organizations and law enforcement has led many professional pathology and microbiology organizations to speak out. (more…)
Feb 27, 2017 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Laboratory Testing, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
The DxMA Summit’s agenda will complement EWC’s and will explore disruptive technologies likely to be of great interest to medical laboratory leaders and pathology groups
Cybersecurity, wearable technology, and social media are the primary trends facing in vitro diagnostics (IVD) manufacturers and clinical laboratories.
That’s according to Debra Harrsch, President-elect of the Diagnostics Marketing Association (DxMA), a self-funded organization devoted to helping diagnostic marketing professionals stay abreast of industry trends and effectively navigate the changing legal, regulatory, and technology landscape.
DxMA will be holding its annual Global Marketing Summit April 30-May 1 at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel on Canal Street. Coincidentally, the 2017 Executive War College (EWC) will takes place in the same venue, May 2-3, directly following the DxMA summit. (more…)
