Jan 20, 2010 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Medical laboratory Technologists are one of 12 professions covered by this government program
Foreign medical laboratory technologists and medical laboratory scientists (MTs) who are new emigrants to British Columbia and other Canadian provinces will be one of a select group of professions to have their credentials recognized within one year under a new “fast-track” arrangement developed by the Canadian and provincial governments.
By recognizing the need to fast track medical laboratory scientists, Canada is acknowledging that pathology laboratories and clinical laboratories face a tight labor market. It is welcome recognition of the need for clinical laboratories to operate with a full staff of qualified pathologists, clinical chemists, medical technologists, and other laboratory medicine specialists.
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Jan 19, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Experts predict a surge in the number of physicians using electronic medical record systems
By dangling as much as $20 billion in front of physicians to encourage their adoption of electronic medical record (EMR) systems during the next few years, Congress has created a new and expensive challenge for the nation’s clinical laboratories. That challenge is the need for every pathology laboratory to establish a high-function interface from its LIS to the office-based physician’s EMR.
According to one expert, the government’s “carrot and stick” strategy to reward doctors financially for adopting EMR’s, will soon force independent medical laboratories and hospital laboratory outreach programs to play catch up with LIS-EMR interfaces to maintain access to physician referrals and the revenue that accompanies these laboratory test specimens.
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Jan 17, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Enriched exchange of digital pathology images and clinical knowledge is the goal
Digital scanning and digital pathology systems represent a major transformational force in the field of anatomic pathology. Momentum in favor of wider adoption by pathologists and pathology laboratories continues to build, reinforced, in part, by an interesting new development, which one pathologist calls “Pathology 2.0.”
Pathology 2.0 describes how Web 2.0 functions can be integrated with digital imaging and digital pathology systems to improve the productivity and quality of pathology workflow. It was Keith Kaplan, M.D., Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who first articulated the intersection of digital scanning and digital pathology systems with Web 2.0 functions as the core of Pathology 2.0, a term he coined.
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Jan 13, 2010 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Dermatologist Steven P. Rosenberg, M.D., chases Humana for $120,000 in claims as old as two years
Clinical pathology laboratories often have problems with health insurance plans that delay paying legitimate claims for reimbursement. Now comes news of a unique strategy successfully employed by a Florida dermatologist who was frustrated that one payer was taking as long as two years to settle his claims.
At the center of this story is Steven P. Rosenberg, M.D. After waiting more than two years for Humana Inc. (NASDAQ: HUM) insurance to reimburse his West Palm Beach dermatology practice for about $120,000 in unpaid claims, Rosenberg decided to take aggressive action. Wanting to avoid the added costs of attorneys, Rosenberg made time to read up on the law and brainstorm. His solution caught Humana off guard and he ended up collecting a substantial amount of the money that Humana owed him. Rosenberg’s solution is something that medical laboratories and pathology groups could employ in cases where a health insurer owes them significant amounts of money.
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Jan 11, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Proteus Biomedical, Inc. prepares to launch a “smart pill” to remotely monitor how medication affects patients.
If some experts are correct, it won’t take long to create ingestible devices that are capable of conducting clinical laboratory tests within the body. These devices would transmit the laboratory test results to physicians over the Internet by using wireless technology.
As soon as 2011, Proteus Medical, Inc., of Redwood City, California, says it expects to introduce an ingestible device for managing heart disease and chronic disease to the clinical market. Proteus named this device the Raisin System and a popular term for this type of technology is “smart pill.”
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