Jun 18, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
In Massachusetts, a 1,000-physician group gets 70% of revenue from capitated payments, motivating the physicians to reduce unnecessary utilization of medical laboratory tests
Accumulating market evidence indicates that unnecessary utilization of medical laboratory tests—a problem bemoaned by pathologists for decades—may finally be addressed by an unlikely source: ordering physicians! Such a trend would have both positive and negative consequences for clinical laboratories throughout the United States.
What motivates physicians, on their own initiative, to reduce the unnecessary utilization of medical laboratory tests are changes in how they are paid. Many private health plans are reimbursing office-based physicians using global payment arrangements, such as capitation. (more…)
Jun 16, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
Similar to Oscar Healthcare in New York, this California-based enterprise technology company offers services to make it easy for individuals to see providers’ prices, including medical laboratory test prices
Another company has entered the marketplace with their unorthodox business model to support health insurance programs. One cornerstone feature is a tool that enables both employers and beneficiaries to see the prices of different providers.
This young player in the health benefits marketplace is Castlight Health (NYSE: CSLT). Based in San Francisco, it was founded in 2008. One aspect of Castlight that pathologists and clinical laboratory managers may find particularly interesting is its price transparency tool. (more…)
Jun 13, 2014 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Sandia National Laboratories creates BaDx anthrax detection cartridge to aid global agriculture using technology that could be adapted for use by clinical laboratories
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) recently unveiled a credit-card-size anthrax detector that works like a portable medical laboratory in the field. Pathologists will recognize this as another example of how the newest diagnostic technologies are being used to create diagnostic tests for application in developing countries that lack a well-developed network of clinical laboratories.
Similar to the way a home-pregnancy test operates, this pocket-size anthrax detection cartridge relies on a lateral flow assay. It can make evaluating agricultural samples in developing countries “safer, easier, faster and cheaper,” according to a SNL news release. (more…)
Jun 11, 2014 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Savvy pathologists and clinical laboratory professionals will look for ways to generate increased value to clinicians by becoming partners and consultants in clinical decisions
Becker’s Hospital Review has identified seven trends in hospital-based physician pay that have emerged over the past several years. These trends reflect fundamental changes in the private practice of medicine and will be of interest to those pathologists and clinical laboratory managers who provide medical laboratory tests to office-based physicians.
As defined by Becker’s in a story published last year, the seven trends indicate shifts in income, along with increasing numbers of physicians migrating out of private practice to salaried hospital positions. Pathologists will want to keep these trends in mind as they plan their personal careers, taking special note of emerging opportunities to generate value in new ways. (more…)
Jun 9, 2014 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
The device would save patients frequent trips to a hospital medical laboratory and automatically transmit coag test results to attending physicians
Researchers in Switzerland are putting coagulation testing together with a smartphone specifically to allow patients to do home self-testing. This is another example of how technology is getting closer to moving medical laboratory tests out of the core lab and into near-patient settings.
This groundbreaking work is being done by researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) [Swiss Federal Institute of Technology]. They want to develop a smartphone device that enables patients to monitor their own anticoagulation therapy at home, according to a report published by Fiercemobilehealthcare.com. (more…)
Jun 6, 2014 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Provider case studies demonstrate that involved teamwork and reengineering of frontline healthcare workers’ jobs leads to better clinical outcomes and improved patient satisfaction
Team-based care is coming to the American healthcare system. Among other things, this will create the need for clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups to better align how they report medical laboratory test results so that all appropriate members of a patient’s care team have timely and appropriate access to relevant lab test data.
One recent study of team-based care determined that expanding frontline workers’ roles is an effective response to healthcare industry pressures. The study was performed by the Engelberg Center for Healthcare Reform at the Brookings Institute. (more…)
