Mar 31, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
Failing finances at technical pathology laboratories may be the most immediate concern for many pathology group practices
Many clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups now recognize the new reality of the American healthcare system: less reimbursement for laboratory testing. On one hand, the fee-for-service prices for lab tests paid by government and private payers have been aggressively slashed.
On the other hand, all payers have become stubbornly resistant to issuing coverage guidelines and setting adequate prices for the flood of new molecular assays and gene tests coming to market.
These trends have already brought a handful of medical laboratories and pathology practices to the point of bankruptcy, sale, or closure. This is definitely true for the technical laboratories owned by many local pathology groups, which have become unprofitable due to fee cuts. (See below.) (more…)
Mar 28, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
In particular, medical laboratories and pathology groups should be doing better at using information technology to meet the needs of consumers and to support physician workflow
Improving patient-provider communication and speeding clinician workflow are two of the top 2014 game changers in healthcare information technology (HIT) cited by a recent report. Each of these top 2014 game changers can be expected to change how patients and physicians interact with their clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology providers.
The report was published by Becker’s Hospital Review. Of the top 10 2014 HIT game changers, Dark Daily considered the two mentioned as the most notable for medical laboratory managers and pathologists. (more…)
Mar 26, 2014 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
If successful, the knowledge gained from this research may provide new tools and medical laboratory tests that pathologists can use in the management of geriatric patients
Google’s founders believe that analysis of the genomes of people who live to be 100 years old and are relatively healthy will allow them to solve the puzzle of human aging. They have funded a new company specifically to pursue this goal.
In the near future, it is unlikely that any of the science developed by this venture will lead to a diagnostic profile or clinical laboratory tests that pathologists can use to help clinicians who deal with the diseases associated with aging. But should the research team at Calico develop a better understanding of the dynamics of human aging, it would certainly be expected that this knowledge would be used to develop appropriate medical laboratory tests. (more…)
Mar 21, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Cloud-based genetic research networks that facilitate collaboration by stakeholders worldwide may solve the most difficult disease challenges, including a cure for cancer
Coming soon to a clinical laboratory near you: cloud-based “big data” genome analysis! A new industry is emerging dedicated to accepting, storing, and analyzing vast quantities of data generated by next-generation gene sequencing and whole human-genome sequencing.
There are already examples of academic departments of pathology and laboratory medicine that have outsourced the storage and annotation of whole human genomes sequenced from tissue specimens collected from cancer patients. The annotated genomes are returned to the referring pathologists for analysis. (more…)
Mar 19, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
New approach to clinical trials promises to make it faster and cheaper to do meaningful clinical studies, thus benefiting pharma firms and in vitro diagnostics manufacturers
There’s a new approach to clinical trials that helps shorten the time required to gain regulatory approval of new therapeutic drugs and in vitro diagnostic tests, while slashing the costs of a clinical trial by as much as 90%. This could end up being an important trend for clinical laboratories and pathology groups to perform medical laboratory testing.
Whatever it is—including clinical trials, everyone wants it faster, better, cheaper. That contemporary notion seems to apply to registry-based randomized clinical trials. This is one approach that can be used when both pharmaceutical and laboratory test companies seek efficient ways to demonstrate functional and clinical value of their products to the FDA, Medicare, and private payers. (more…)
Mar 17, 2014 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Research breakthrough heralded as key insight that can lead to more accurate clinical laboratory tests and more effective antibiotics for treating E. Coli infections
Antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria are one of healthcare’s biggest threats to patient safety and improved patient outcomes. Now advanced gene sequencing has given researchers a startling new understanding of how Escherichia coli (E. coli) has developed resistance to antibiotics.
This discovery may have a major impact on microbiology labs in hospitals, because they do so much of the medical laboratory testing to detect and identify infections. These new research findings also demonstrate to pathologists how quickly genome analysis can generate new knowledge about diseases and their causes. (more…)
