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…)
Jul 8, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, News From Dark Daily
Clinically integrated networks is one market trend in response to shift away from fee-for-service payment and toward value-based provider reimbursement
One fast-developing trend is that of academic centers forming integrated networks with various providers within a community and a surrounding region. This is related to a movement to establish accountable care organizations (ACOs). But it is also a response to actions by payers to narrow their networks and exclude high-cost providers, such as academic centers.
This business model has a mutual goal. Each integrated network is anchored by an academic medical center and is designed to foster closer interaction between the academic subspecialists and the wider clinical community. For pathologists and clinical lab managers, such integrated provider networks may often encourage participating physicians to send their reference and esoteric medical laboratory test referrals to the academic center and not to the physicians’ primary laboratory provider. (more…)
Jun 19, 2013 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Growth in the number of medical homes could make winners of those pathology groups and medical laboratories that learn how to best meet the needs of these providers
Physician executives at TransforMED, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the American Academy of Family Physicians, are blogging with their opinions about which providers will be winners and losers in healthcare. Although most pathologists may not agree with these opinions, there are useful insights to be gleaned from the reasoning behind these opinions.
According to TransforMed’s physician-leaders, healthcare is not about to transform—it already has! The healthcare world is no longer changing, it has changed, and “there will be winners and losers,” stated Terry McGeeney, M.D., MBA, FAAFP, in a blog published on the TransforMed Website.
(more…)
Nov 2, 2012 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Once completed, this merger would bring two nationally- respected departments of pathology and clinical laboratory into the combined health system
Two of the nation’s most prominent academic departments of pathology and clinical laboratory medicine will become part of a single “super-health system” if a just-announced plan to merge takes place. In Detroit on Wednesday, it was announced that Henry Ford Health System and Beaumont Health System had each signed a letter of intent to merge.
CEO Nancy Schlichting of Henry Ford Health System and CEO Gene Michalski, of Beaumont Health System discussed the plan to merge their health systems at a press conference on Wednesday, October 31. The deal is subject to further discussions and due diligence. No target date for completion of the merger was provided. (more…)
Sep 7, 2012 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers should not be surprised to see today’s nontraditional healthcare delivery models becoming tomorrow’s industry norm
Big healthcare players are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire unexpected targets. The biggest of these deals signal that healthcare consolidation and integration is a continuing trend. It is also a reminder to clinical laboratory managers and pathologists that the competitive healthcare marketplace is transforming at a steady pace.
Three such deals emphasize that the consolidation trend is alive and well:
- Dignity Health purchased U.S. Healthworks this summer. No terms were disclosed, but some analysts estimate that the purchase price may have been more than $500 million.
- DaVita Partners, a major player in dialysis services, is to purchase Healthcare Partners for $4.4 billion. Healthcare Partners operates 150 clinics in three states, plus has a national network of 8,300 independent physicians.
- United HealthGroup, Inc., in deal announced last fall, acquired Monarch Healthcare, an independent physician association with 2,300 doctors in Southern California. Purchase price was not announced.
Acquisitions Have Potential to Reshape Competitive Landscape (more…)
