Aug 10, 2012 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing
Goal is to maintain community pathology services while expanding subspecialty pathology expertise to offer more laboratory testing services to physicians
Two of Washington State’s largest anatomic pathology groups announced their intention to merge earlier this week. When completed, the combined pathology supergroup will number 36 board-certified pathologists and will have large histology laboratories in both the western and eastern regions of Washington.
The merger will bring together the pathologists of InCyte Pathology of Spokane with Eastside Pathology Incorporated of Bellevue. Although InCyte has 25 pathologists and Eastside has 11 pathologists, leaders at both pathology groups told Dark Daily that each group considers this a merger of equals. This is one key to understanding why this merger is happening. (more…)
Aug 9, 2012 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Strategy is to use automation and new informatics solutions to improve productivity of medical lab’s billing and collection departments
Relentless pressure to cut costs is pushing the nation’s clinical laboratories to finally look at back-office functions as a source of important cost reductions. That is a new trend in the medical laboratory testing industry.
“No one should be surprised by this development,” stated Lâle White, CEO of XIFIN, Inc., of San Diego, California. “When it came to cutting costs, for the better part of two decades, most clinical laboratories put priority emphasis on the pre-analytical and analytical stages of their lab operations. This was a good strategy and has produced substantial gains in quality and productivity, even as labs were able to better manage costs. (more…)
Aug 8, 2012 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Studies show home-based hospital acute care results in fewer medical laboratory and diagnostic tests
Home-based hospital care (HBHC) is a care delivery model that is evolving at a rapid pace. To be effective, HBHC must improve patient outcomes while avoiding the expenses associated with an inpatient stay at a hospital.
However, significant growth in the number of patients treated in home-based hospital care programs would directly affect hospital-based clinical laboratories and pathology groups. Among other things, this would reduce the volume of inpatient testing while increasing the number of outpatient/outreach specimens.
Evidence is accumulating in favor of HBHC. New research shows that a New Mexico home-based hospital care (HH) program demonstrated cost savings and equal or better patient outcomes and patient satisfaction for acutely-ill patients compared to similar patients receiving in-hospital care. These new findings affirm similar results from a 2005 study of HBHC. (more…)
Aug 3, 2012 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Management & Operations
Medical labs and pathology groups using Sunquest LIS products likely to see positive changes from Sunquest’s fourth change in ownership since 2001
In what is likely to be the biggest deal in clinical laboratory and pathology informatics for this year, Roper Industries, Inc. (NYSE: ROP), of Sarasota, Florida, will acquire Sunquest Information Systems, Inc., of Tucson, Arizona. The purchase price is an impressive $1.42 billion dollars and the deal was announced on Monday this week.
Roper Industries will get a lot for its money. Sunquest holds a significant share of the nation’s market for laboratory information systems (LIS). Sunquest has also built a substantial market share in anatomic pathology informatics, anchored by its CoPath and PowerPath products.
Sales Price of $1.42 Billion for Sunquest and Its Clinical Lab Software
What some may consider an eye-popping sales price of $1.42 billion for Sunquest demonstrates that investor interest in all aspects of the clinical laboratory testing marketplace remains strong. In its second quarter conference call, executives at Roper Industries told the financial analysts that, during 2013, they expect Sunquest to generate $140 million in EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization). If true, that would indicate that the sales price is based upon approximately a 10-times multiple of Sunquest’s EBIDTA. (more…)
Jul 30, 2012 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Uncategorized
Clinical labs and pathology groups will want to be prepared for cash-paying patients who demand discounted prices for medical laboratory tests
For decades, it has typically been difficult for a patient to get, in advance of treatment, a specific price from a healthcare provider. This has been true, whether the provider was a hospital, an office-based physician, or an ancillary clinical service. This lack of “price transparency” makes it difficult for patients to shop for healthcare providers—including clinical laboratories—based on the same combination of quality and price that they use to make other important purchases in their lives.
Recently, the Los Angeles Times looked into the arcane world of healthcare pricing. Its reporter was astonished to discover that, in California, it was possible for a cash-paying patient to be charged a price by a hospital that was just 16% of the “patient list price.” Furthermore, this cash price was less than half of what that hospital had negotiated with at least one major health plan! (more…)
Jul 27, 2012 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Strategic collaboration promises leap forward in personalized medicine that could be game-changing for medical laboratories
One early effort to apply next generation gene sequencing to cancer diagnostics and therapeutics is a collaboration that involves Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center (GHS) in Greenville, South Carolina, and Lab21, Inc., a British company. GHS wants to use next gene sequencing as an integral part of the evaluation of every cancer patient cared for in the GHS system.
The partnership between GHS and Lab21 provides evidence for pathologists and clinical laboratories that first mover hospitals and health systems are now taking steps to incorporate next generation gene sequencing (NGS) into their cancer care protocols. Forward-looking pathology groups are already taking steps to expand their capabilities to perform and interpret genetic tests. (more…)
