Oct 16, 2013 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Management & Operations
Recent hospital mergers are creating super-sized health systems that immediately gain leverage over insurers when negotiating managed care contracts
Experts say the nation is experiencing its biggest surge in hospital mergers in more than a decade. Moreover, this latest wave of deals is creating supersized hospital systems that are expected to dominate healthcare and possibly lead to higher healthcare costs.
The ongoing consolidation of hospital ownership means further consolidation of the hospital laboratories that find themselves merged into larger health systems. That will have both good and bad consequences for pathologists and medical laboratory managers working within these organizations. (more…)
Oct 9, 2013 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily, Uncategorized
Because of successive decreases in budgets for clinical laboratory testing, many Canadian medical laboratories are engaging their staffs to innovate and introduce new value-added testing services
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA—Traditional operational and business models for clinical laboratory testing are under siege here in Canada, just as they are in other developed nations across the globe. That was one important trend identified by multiple speakers at Executive Edge 2013, that took place Monday and Tuesday of this week.
During Monday morning’s opening session, a common point of emphasis was that simply consolidating specimens into large medical laboratory facilities as a way to achieve economies of scale and lower the average cost per test is fast becoming obsolete. All pathologists and clinical laboratory managers understand why this is true: payers can lower reimbursement for lab tests faster than labs can cut the costs of performing those tests. (more…)
Oct 7, 2013 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
A sold-out audience gathered at the seventh annual Lab Quality Confab and heard speakers from the nation’s most innovative medical laboratories share case studies about success in cutting lab expenses and improving quality
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA—At a time when medical laboratories in the United States are experiencing significant financial challenges, there was plenty of guarded optimism among the clinical laboratory managers and pathologists who gathered in this famous city last week for the seventh annual Lab Quality Confab.
One reason for this optimism is that speakers and attendees at this sold-out meeting are the nation’s leading experts in the use of Lean, Six Sigma, and process improvement methods in medical laboratories and pathology groups. They know how to cut lab costs while maintaining quality and boosting the productivity of the lab’s staff and automated systems. (more…)
Oct 4, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Digital Pathology, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Complaints are rolling in about the high-cost interface fees charged by EHR companies for federally mandated connections
It won’t surprise pathologists and clinical laboratory managers to learn that vendors of electronic health record (EHR) systems are milking physicians and other health-care providers with excessive fees above and beyond the EHR cost. Vendors are socking it to providers—including medical laboratories—in the pricing they charge to create the mandatory interfaces required for the EHRs to connect with outside networks.
These excessive fees were the subject of a story published by Modern Healthcare. It reported that healthcare providers contend that the interface fees are excessive because the software developed for federally mandated connections are common to all vendor customers. Therefore, the interfaces are used over and over again. (more…)
Sep 25, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
If enacted, this fee cut is predicted to cost medical laboratories €316M Annually and eliminate about 8,000 jobs in that nation
Clinical laboratories here in the United States are not alone in their struggle maintain quality as declining reimbursements from private and government health programs force cost-cutting measures. In France, medical laboratories have learned that they will soon see a sizeable cut in reimbursement paid to them for lab testing services.
This summer, France’s Cour des comptes (French Court of Auditors) called for cutting tariffs to medical laboratories by 7.5%, according to a report published by The Connexion.
Price Cuts Justified by Overutilization of Medical Laboratory Tests (more…)
Sep 11, 2013 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Management & Operations
News stories are reporting that Walgreens is participating in ACOs now forming in New Jersey, Florida, and Texas
Retail clinics are positioning themselves to play a major role in the delivery of basic primary care services. Consumer and payer acceptance of the “convenience care” model has brought the concept to a tipping point in its potential to shift the way that some basic primary care—and medical laboratory testing—services are delivered.
Dark Daily has long predicted that retail clinics would want to expand their services beyond the original formula of a nurse practitioner who handles a basic menu of easy-to-diagnose conditions. Consumers have readily accepted this healthcare delivery model. In fact, a new title has been coined that has its own Wikipedia.com page: Convenient care clinic. (more…)
