May 2, 2014 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
Medical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups are scrambling to respond as healthcare evolves into new models of integrated clinical care and payers seek to reduce reimbursement for clinical lab tests
NEW ORLEANS, LA.—There was more bad news than good news for the 800 clinical laboratory professionals and pathologists who assembled this week in “The Big Easy” to discuss and debate the serious financial and clinical challenges now weighing down the entire profession of laboratory medicine in the United States.
Probably the most unwelcome news delivered to attendees at the 19th Annual Executive War College on Laboratory and Pathology Management, was the contents of the new law titled the “Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014” (PAMA). This was the legislation passed by Congress to patch the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula for one more year. It was signed into law by President Obama on April 1, 2014. (more…)
Apr 14, 2014 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Leaders from ACLA, AdvaMedDx, CAP, NILA will be at Executive War College on April 29-30 for first medical lab industry debate about the best and worst of the new law
Clinical laboratories will face new financial challenges following passage of a new federal law two weeks ago that makes deep changes in the way Medicare officials will establish prices for the Medicare Part B Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS). Many medical laboratory administrators, hospital lab managers, and pathologists remain unaware of the significant negative financial impact this law will have on their lab’s revenue and fiscal stability.
On April 1, President Barack Obama signed H.R. 4302: Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014. The law’s primary purpose is to extend the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula for 12 months. The House had passed the bill on the previous Thursday and the Senate passed the bill on the following Monday, March 31. (more…)
Mar 24, 2014 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Sales managers at top-performing medical labs and pathology groups are directing the lab sales reps to develop new clients who can refer lab tests that are still adequately reimbursed
In today’s rough-and-tumble healthcare marketplace, every clinical laboratory and pathology group needs a sales manager or sales vice president who is at that top of the game in managing productive sales reps, achieving growth targets, and strengthening their lab’s financial stability.
Labs with strong sales leaders are doing much better financially at a time when payers are slashing the prices they pay for medical laboratory tests. (more…)
Aug 21, 2013 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
Many hospital outreach lab programs are dealing with the double whammy of successive reductions in Medicare Part B Clinical Laboratory Test fees and a shrinking budget by their parent hospitals
Over the past 24 months, all the painful cuts to lab test prices have made depressing news. These decreases in the prices paid to clinical laboratories by the Medicare program and major private health insurers mean that labs in 2014 will have significantly less revenue, even as the volume of specimens to be tested increases.
The logical response by many medical laboratory organizations has been to take active steps to decrease expenses. In fact, the price and revenue erosion experienced by labs of all sizes and types over the past two years is the reason why cutting unnecessary costs is now a primary management goal at clinical laboratories throughout the United States. (more…)
Dec 19, 2012 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Uncategorized
Change in who owns office-based physician groups is a trend which can create new winners and losers among the nation’s independent medical laboratories
Physicians today are more willing to practice medicine as employees than as partners or owners of their medical group. This signals a significant shift in the market for clinical laboratory testing and anatomic pathology services.
This new development will require that all medical laboratory organizations to rethink how they serve office-based physicians. New strategies will be required, both to better meet the clinical service needs of these employee-physicians, as well as to redirect sales and marketing programs to the new decision makers. (more…)
