Jul 18, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Innovative use of crowdsourcing allows pathologists and genetic scientists to create a sizeable database of BRCA mutations that is accessible to clinicians and patients
There’s a new development in the longstanding battle over proprietary healthcare data versus public sharing of such information. Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will be interested to learn that, when it comes to genetic testing of the BRCA mutation involved in breast cancer, a public data base of mutations is growing so rapidly that it may become the world’s largest repository of such information.
It was last year when the Supreme Court ruled in the gene patent case of Association of Molecular Pathology versus Myriad Genetics that human genes were not patentable. Following that decision, some financial analysts stated that Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MYGN) retained a competitive advantage over other medical laboratories due to its huge database of mutations in the BRCA genes. (See Dark Daily, “Supreme Court Strikes down Myriad Gene Patents in Unanimous Vote; Decision Is Expected to Benefit Clinical Pathology Laboratories,” July 1, 2013.) (more…)
Jul 26, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations, Uncategorized
Clinical laboratories and pathology groups may want to review the prices they charge insured patients versus uninsured patients
There is a certain irony in the fact that hospitals and other medical providers typically charge patients without health insurance as much as three times what they charge Medicare or an insured patient. This situation is getting increased media scrutiny, which is one reason why clinical laboratories and pathology groups may want to review their own policies for charging patients without health insurance.
One good study on prices charged to self-pay patients was conducted by Gerard Anderson, Ph.D., a health economist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His study was funded by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and published in the May-June 2007 journal Health Affairs.
Anderson analyzed 2004 hospital billing data. He concluded that the gap between rates charged self-pay and insured patients has grown substantially since the mid-1980s. “In the 1950s, the uninsured and poor were charged the lowest prices for medical services. Today they pay the highest prices…,” wrote Anderson, noting that self-pay charges often reflect the hospital’s “chargemaster” prices–the top prices used to negotiate discounts with insurers. (more…)
Apr 30, 2012 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Use of electronic medical record systems makes it easier for physicians to create patient care dashboards
Just as more clinical laboratories are using real-time dashboards to manage operations and workflow, a similar trend is happening with office-based physicians. Physicians using electronic medical records (EMRs/EHRs) in their medical practice are creating dashboards that give them detailed, real-time information about their patients.
One example is the Marshfield Clinic, based in Marshfield, Wisconsin. A recent story by Healthcare-Informatics.com (HI), reported that Marshfield Clinic has created a real-time dashboard for physicians. Marshfield is a 779-physician multi-specialty group. The dashboard application provides doctors with usable data across their entire patient population.
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Aug 7, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
MedPAC recommendation targets high-cost imaging done in physician’s offices
Following the lead of some private insurers, Medicare may soon require preauthorization for high-cost imaging tests—including CT, MRI and PET scans—done in physician offices. This is one of two strategies aimed at reducing payments for Part B physician radiology services that was recommended by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) in its report to Congress in March.
The General Accounting Office (GAO) estimates that preauthorization could save the Medicare program $220 million by 2014 and about $1 billion by 2019. To make preauthorization work, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would establish a panel of experts, to be known as a Radiology Benefits Managers (RBMs), to assist in evaluating and adjusting payment for potentially overvalued imaging services ordered by physicians with their own imaging facilities.
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