Jun 15, 2011 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Watson is capable of assessing health data, including medical laboratory test results
When IBM’s Watson “supercomputer” squared off against human contestants on the Jeopardy game show last February, there certainly were some pathologists and clinical laboratory managers watching this “man versus machine” battle of knowledge. But those pathologists and medical lab managers did not realize that IBM intends for Watson to play a major role in helping physicians diagnose and treat disease.
IBM is designing Watson to use analytical algorithms to support how physicians assess information as they evaluate patients. In this role, it is likely that Watson will be fed laboratory test data and evidence-based medicine algorithms as part of the data it draws upon to help physicians more accurately diagnose disease and come up with appropriate treatment plans. (more…)
Nov 24, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
ACOs will change how clinical laboratories and pathology groups provide medical lab tests
Clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups will need to gear up to support accountable care organizations (ACO) in advance of Medicare’s “Shared Savings Program” launch in January 2012. But decades after the first ACOs opened their doors, some experts debate whether they’ve succeeded in their mission, which begs the question, are they a good idea at all?
According to the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA) who funded the report “Accountable Care Organizations in California—Lessons for the National Debate on Delivery System Reform,” ACOs are intended to “promote higher quality and more efficient healthcare delivery in the United states.” But according to the report’s author, James Robinson, director of the Center for Health Technology at the University of California at Berkeley, current ACO structures might need to be redesigned if ACOs are to be ultimately successful.
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Sep 2, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement
Labtests succeeds Sonic’s DML as the primary lab test provider in Auckland area
One of the world’s most interest experiments in government contracting for clinical laboratory testing services is unfolding in Auckland, New Zealand. Next Monday, September 7, Labtests will assume full responsibility for testing approximately 12,000 patients per day in a brand-new laboratory facility that has only conducted testing on a limited basis since August 10, 2008.
On that same day, Diagnostic Medlab’s (DML) existing contract with the District Health Boards in greater Auckland will terminate. Earlier, on August 18, DML’s parent company, Sonic Healthcare Ltd. (ASX:SHL) of Sydney, Australia, announced plans to shutter DML’s laboratory facility and write-off its Auckland-based business division.
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Aug 19, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
One approach is to bundle payments to hospitals, physicians, labs, and other providers
Momentum is building around a new effort to drive down existing rates of hospital readmissions. Different reimbursement proposals to encourage hospitals and physicians to reduce current readmission rates will likely also change the reimbursement status quo for laboratory testing. For example, bundling Part A and Part B payments may be one approach.
Experts increasingly believe one game changer in lowering healthcare costs and improving outcomes is avoidable hospital readmissions. One in five Medicare patients returns to the hospital within 30 days. Overall, readmissions cost Medicare an estimated $17 billion yearly. Of this total, about $12 billion are believed to be avoidable cases
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Apr 17, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Bundled Payment Demonstration Project Changes How Labs Would Be Paid
Efforts in the nation’s capital to reform healthcare are still in the formative stage as the new President and the new Congress consider various approaches. Meanwhile, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) started the new year by launching pilots for a bundled-service payment scheme. Not only may this be the beginning of the end of the fee-for-service payment system, but it has important implications for clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups.
The bundled payment system demonstration projects are a first step to what’s coming next. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, better known as MedPAC , released its blueprint for reforming the delivery system to Congress on March 17 in its annual Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy.
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