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…)
Sep 9, 2013 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
Laboratory Corporation of America gets 26 MuirLab Patient Service Centers (PSCs) in Northern California
Another hospital system is exiting the clinical laboratory outreach business. John Muir Health in Walnut Creek, California, agreed on Tuesday to sell its MuirLab business to Laboratory Corporation of America (NYSE: LH) in Burlington, North Carolina.
In the deal, LabCorp will take over and operate 26 MuirLab Patient Service Centers (PSCs) in parts of Northern California, including Contra Costa, Alameda, and Solano counties. In addition, LabCorp is purchasing the client list of office-based physicians and hospitals serve by MuirLab. LabCorp will also be the preferred provider of reference lab services for John Muir Health and its affiliates.
John Muir Health will retain its two hospital-based labs in Walnut Creek and Concord. Terms were not announced and the sale is due to close in November.
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Sep 6, 2013 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Clinical laboratories have an opportunity to provide medical laboratory test services to employer-sponsored wellness programs
Venture capitalists are beginning to pour dollars into mobile apps designed to support corporate health and wellness. For savvy pathologists and clinical laboratory managers, this represents an opportunity to serve a cash-paying market for medical laboratory testing.
Another aspect of this trend which may be worth studying by pathologists and clinical laboratory administrators is the use of “gamification” by these mobile app developers. Gamification uses technologies and programming to more deeply engage the user, just as a video game does.
Corporate wellness platform Keas of San Francisco, California, recently announced an $8-million investment round, according to a story at mobihealthnews.com. Ignition Partners and Atlas Ventures provided the capital. With this latest round of funding, investors have $25.5 million invested in Keas. (more…)
Sep 4, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Digital Pathology, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
As medical laboratories struggle to reduce costs and squeeze their budgets, it is essential that the lab’s quality assurance/quality control program is run properly to protect and enhance the analytical integrity of lab test results
When does budget cutting in a clinical laboratory begin to undermine the accuracy and analytical integrity of the medical laboratory test results produced by the laboratory?
This question is apparently a subject of much discussion within some lab organizations where aggressive cost reduction programs are shrinking lab staff and reducing funds spent on controls and similar QA/QC resources.
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Sep 3, 2013 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement
Commission issues 12 recommendations to enhance physician and patient satisfaction, while creating a financially sustainable healthcare system
How quickly will fee-for-service disappear as a primary source of reimbursement for clinical laboratories, pathologists, hospitals, and physicians? If the recommendation of one credible group of physicians has its way, fee-for-service reimbursement could disappear in as little as five years.
This recommendation was made by National Commission on Physician Payment Reform as part of a report it issued in May. In its press release, the commission issued a call “for eliminating stand-alone fee-for-service payment by the end of the decade.” The group urges a transition over five years to a blended payment system that will yield better results for both public and private payers, as well as patients.” (more…)
Aug 30, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement
Confusion, unhappiness, and many unresolved issues remain about the way government and private payers are handling claims for molecular diagnostic tests covered by the 114 new CPT codes
Dust is settling from the fiasco triggered by the Medicare program’s failure to be ready on January 1, 2013, to settle molecular diagnostic test claims filed under the 114 new Tier 1 and Tier 2 molecular CPT codes. The damage is not just limited to Medicare test claims, but also involves private health plans that were waiting to let the Medicare program set precedents on coverage and prices for the new molecular test codes.
Many Clinical Laboratories Must Cope With an Unsatisfactory Situation
Although federal Medicare officials and Medicare contractors have scrambled to rectify the situation, even today there is much unhappiness across the clinical laboratory industry about the current state of things. That unhappiness extends to state Medicaid and private payers because many of these payers have been slow to publish coverage guidelines and prices for these new molecular test CPT codes.
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