Sep 9, 2015 | Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
American Gut is using test results to create a microbiome database for use by researchers to better understand how microbes impact human health
Have you ever wondered what lurks in the dark corridors of your bowels? Now you can find out. Two entrepreneurial organizations—one a not-for-profit and the other a new clinical lab company—are charting new medical laboratory territory with the offer of an inexpensive poop test that reveals the type of microbes residing in your gut.
Where to Get Your Gut Microbes Analyzed
The not-for-profit organization American Gut, or British Gut in the United Kingdom (UK), which launched as crowd-funding projects on FundRazr, involve a private research project called the Human Food Project (HFP), which was initiated to compare the microbiomes of populations around the world. The Human Food Project is seeking a better understanding of modern disease by studying the coevolution of humans and their microbes.
People who pay American Gut’s $99 test fee (£75 for the UK project) receive a test kit to collect a stool sample to mail back for DNA sequencing. The test results will be provided to participants, but also benefit microbiome research. (more…)
Sep 4, 2015 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
New device is designed to perform clinical laboratory testing by using nanoelectronic technology to measure multiple diagnostic parameters in patients’ homes
Researchers have developed yet another device that takes its readings from a patient’s internal bio-markers. This devices analyzes, then transmits the data directly to doctors’ smartphones to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Developers say use of this system may potentially enable doctors to treat patients in their homes without meeting with them in person.
Mobile Wireless System Designed to Help Patients with Chronic Illnesses
For pathologists and clinical laboratory managers, this research is another example of how technology can be used to take diagnostic testing out of centralized laboratories and put it closer to the patient. This particular miniature device is part of a mobile wireless system designed to aid the elderly and those with chronic illnesses remain independent by allowing continuous monitoring in the home and helping physicians diagnose problems including myocardial infarction early.
The technology for this home-testing system was co-developed by researchers from Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology and researchers from Berlin Charité, T-Systems, and multiple international partners in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)/EU-funded project Nanoelectronics for Mobile AAL Systems (MAS). (more…)
Sep 2, 2015 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
News reports state that Anthem and Cigna have denied payment for some multigene panel tests, saying that the tests are unproven. Other insurers, such as UnitedHealthcare and Priority Health, pay for such tests but only for certain patients
A conflict is building between patients and health insurers over the reluctance among health plans to pay for new, expensive molecular diagnostic assays and genetic tests that clinical laboratory companies offer.
This conflict has caught the attention of the nation’s media. That is probably because it makes a great story, for example, to interview parents who can assert that their sick child suffered because their health insurance plan would not pay for a genetic test the parents believed would make a difference in their child’s clinical care. Of course, pathologists and medical laboratory professionals know that there are a significant number of expensive genetic tests being offered by various lab companies that lack extensive data to support their clinical efficacy. (more…)
Aug 31, 2015 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
The Clinical Laboratory Management Association is encouraging medical laboratories to submit abstracts about their programs to deliver more value to patients and physicians through the use of clinical pathology laboratory tests
Now, more than ever, the house of laboratory medicine needs to be publishing clinic studies and evidence that the money spent on appropriate medical laboratory testing is returned tenfold from improved patient outcomes and substantial reductions in the cost per episode of care that can be associated with the use of those lab tests.
It is this credible evidence that can help shape healthcare policy in positive ways, while encouraging government and private payers to recognize the true value of clinical laboratory tests and thus establish adequate reimbursement to insure the continuation of high-quality lab testing services in the United States. (more…)
Aug 28, 2015 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Were health insurers to experience tough financial pressures, clinical laboratories and pathology groups could see a scale-back in medical lab test payments for 2016 and 2017
Will health insurance premiums skyrocket in 2016 for health plans offered through the Affordable Care Act? That’s a tough question to answer, given that projected increases are substantial in some states and moderate in other states.
The answer to this question is an important one for clinical laboratory executives and pathologists. If health insurers pay out more in claims than they receive in premiums, they generally try to balance the books by paying providers less. That includes medical laboratories.
There is credible evidence that premiums in some states may increase dramatically for 2016. Even as the Obama administration pressures states to keep rates from rising too fast, many insurers are struggling to remain financially viable after discovering that those enrolling in the Obamacare marketplace continue to be less healthy than anticipated.
One consequence from health insurers that face mounting financial pressures is that they could be inclined to exclude higher-priced clinical laboratories and pathology groups from their networks. Also, as noted earlier, they could reduce the amount they reimburse for lab tests. (more…)
Aug 26, 2015 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
In provinces across Canada, health systems are dealing with limited budgets, growing populations, and the need to transition to personalized medicine
Medical laboratories in Canada have something in common with medical laboratories in most other developed nations. Demand for healthcare services exceeds capacity, even as the healthcare system struggles to find adequate funding. This puts pathology labs in a bind, since they are asked to test growing numbers of specimens even as budgets are flat or shrinking.
That means the biggest two challenges facing labs in Canada will be familiar to pathologists, clinical chemists and medical laboratory scientists in almost every other developed nation across the globe. One challenge is how to meet the steady annual increase in lab specimens that must be tested. The second challenge is how to do that additional testing even as government health systems are forced to trim budgets year after year. (more…)
