Jun 29, 2012 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Management & Operations
Price transparency expected to encourage competition among healthcare providers, including medical laboratories
Before consumers visit a clinical laboratory, they can now check the “fair” price of medical laboratory tests. New websites have sprung up that make it easy for consumers to find what experts consider to be fair market prices for each type of lab test, as well as for other medical procedures and healthcare services.
Pathologists should think of the well-known “Kelly Blue Book” that has been the price authority for prices of new and used automobiles for decades. These new medical price websites are easy to use and make it quick for a consumer to find “fair” prices for common clinical laboratory test and medical procedure.
These new web-based companies are organized to serve the needs of consumers who are enrolled in high-deductible health plans (HDHP). For an individual, an annual deductible can be as high as $2,500—and as much as $5,000 for a family. Thus, clinical laboratory managers should not be surprised that consumers are actively price-shopping before they visit their laboratory to have a specimen collected.
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Jun 13, 2012 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Clinical laboratory managers and pathologists will want to develop strategies for adding value under ACO model
One lesson learned from a pilot accountable care organization (ACO) project is that increased utilization of clinical laboratory testing in appropriate circumstances will contribute to improved patient outcomes. Just one year into a pilot ACO partnership, Norton Healthcare and insurer Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) have shown quality gains and some modest savings.
This is encouraging news for pathologists and clinical laboratory managers. It shows that, when physicians participating in ACOs more closely follow evidence-based medicine (EBM) guidelines, the increase in lab test utilization can play the expected role in improving diagnosis and guiding therapeutic choices. However, it should be noted that the results disclosed by the Norton/Humana ACO pilot only cover a short period of time. (more…)
Jun 6, 2012 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Local medical laboratories and pathology groups can often contract to provide certain services to nearby biotechnology firms
Clinical laboratories and pathology groups lucky enough to be located near one of the nation’s recognized “life science clusters” have an opportunity to create useful business relationships with the pharmaceutical firms, biotechnology companies, and medical device businesses that operate within these clusters.
Biotech firms located in these life science clusters often need some of the medical laboratory testing services commonly offered by local clinical laboratories. Relationships developed for these reasons can often open the door for medical laboratories—particularly in academic centers—to play other roles in helping develop new in vitro diagnostic (IVD) technologies for clinical applications. (more…)
May 25, 2012 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Sensitivity and specificity of test kit for over-the-counter sale does not equal that of HIV assays performed in licensed and accredited clinical laboratories
Despite concerns about the potential for false positive results, an in-home rapid HIV test kit designed to be sold to consumers in pharmacies and other retail outlets cleared one more hurdle on the path to winning clearance by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to come to market.
On May 15, the 17 voting members of FDA’s Blood Products Advisory Committee (BPAC), concluded that the benefits of the OraQuick in-home HIV test outweigh the potential risks for consumers, according to a story published at cbsnews.com. The FDA advisory panel’s decision came despite earlier reported concerns regarding decreased accuracy of the OTC test when performed by consumers as compared to results from the professional-use version.
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May 23, 2012 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Pathology
Goal of unique collaboration is to give physicians a more accurate way to diagnose and treat many types of cancer
Two noteworthy healthcare organizations will collaborate with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to explore how IBM’s Watson can be used to help physicians deliver improved outcomes to patients. The collaboration involves one major health insurer and a prominent academic medical center in Los Angeles.
WellPoint, Inc. (NYSE: WLP) will interact with oncology experts at the Cedars-Sinai Cancer Institute in Los Angeles to “educate” and program Watson as a physician’s assistant. What makes this particularly interesting for anatomic pathologists is the potential of this project to marry advances in molecular diagnostics with artificial intelligence in ways that allow physicians to diagnose different cancers earlier and with greater accuracy.
In its story about this development, the Los Angeles Times reported that, per IBM, physicians at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute will be the first to use the Watson technology.
The institute’s doctors will serve as advisers and lend expertise to help shape the initiative to develop effective ways to use Watson. “Cedars Sinai will provide the guidelines and insights to put into Watson,” stated Manoj Saxena, General Manager of IBM Watson Solutions, in a story published by Forbes Magazine.
Watson is IBM’s computing system that incorporates deep question answering technology that allows it to search quickly through vast amounts of data, then process it and analyze it in a way similar to that of the human brain. The Watson system is capable of processing the equivalent of about 200 million pages of data in about three seconds, Forbes reported.
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