Sep 28, 2015 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
As national health insurers push more risk to hospital systems and medical groups, many hospital administrators become more interested in establishing their own health insurance companies
New modes of provider reimbursement—such as bundled payments and budgeted payments—are motivating hospitals and health systems to reconsider their existing relationships with health insurers. Hospital administrators want to control the dollars they save by improving patient care, instead of allowing insurance companies to capture that money.
To accomplish these goals, more and more hospitals and health systems across the country are making one of three moves:
• Funding their own health plans;
• Partnering with health insurance companies; or,
• Buying health insurance companies.
As this trend gathers momentum, it will put the medical laboratories of hospitals in a much better position to regain access to patients. It can be expected that hospital administrators will include their own clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology providers in their own health insurance provider networks. (more…)
Dec 17, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Study was published in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and showed how high-deductible healthcare plans are motivating consumers to use online transparency tools to search for providers that offer greatest value
Do consumers choose less expensive medical laboratories and imaging providers when they can see the prices in advance? The findings of a recently released study suggest that the answer is “yes”—that consumers will shop for the clinical laboratory with the cheapest test prices when they have access to price information!
This is one conclusion from a study of a half million consumers conducted by Castlight, Inc. (NYSE:CSLT), a San Francisco-based company that offers employers an online tool that enables their employees to compare healthcare pricing among their network providers. Researchers at Castlight confirmed that if consumers know the price of laboratory and imaging tests or physician visits in advance, they will choose the less expensive provider. (more…)
Dec 3, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Laboratory Testing
Researchers at the University of California San Francisco revealed that the cost for a simple cholesterol test ranged from as little as $10 to as much as $10,169!
Clinical laboratories owned by hospitals and health systems should take note of a public study of hospital laboratory test prices that was conducted by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). It was published this summer and showed a remarkable range of prices for medical laboratory tests charged by California hospitals.
How about a charge of $10,169 for a routine blood cholesterol test? This was one finding a study discussed in the August 2014 issue of the British Medical Journal Open blog. The study was led by Renee Hsia, M.D.. She is an associate professor of Emergency Medicine and Health Policy at the UCSF Medical School. Hsia and her colleagues compared charges for 10 common clinical laboratory tests that were reported in 2011 by all non-federal California hospitals. (more…)
Oct 22, 2014 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Developed to detect pathogens missed in wounds of soldiers, this technology was licensed to a company for development into a test for use by clinical laboratories
Diagnostic technology developed for rapid detection of pathogens in the wounds of soldiers has been licensed to a private company that intends to use it to create new medical laboratory tests. This new technology is capable of identifying thousands of bacteria and viruses in a single test.
Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory developed what is called the Lawrence Livermore Microbial Detection Array (LLMDA). Within 24 hours, this single test can detect multiple viruses and bacteria. The LLMDA technology has been licensed to St. Louis, Missouri-based MOgene LC, a supplier of DNA microarrays, according to a report published by UC Health. (more…)
Aug 13, 2014 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
It took UCSF physicians just 48 hours to identify the bacteria in cerebrospinal fluid that was causing fourteen-year-old Joshua Osborn’s hydrocephalus and status epilepticus
There’s rich irony in the FDA’s recent announcement that it would move forward with plans to regulate “laboratory-developed tests ” (LDTs) just weeks after the national media published stories about how innovative use of an LDT helped physicians make an accurate diagnosis that saved the life of seriously-ill 14-year old boy.
Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers may be aware of the case of Joshua Osborn. It was a laboratory-developed test that used next-generation gene sequencing in a unique approach that gave his care team the diagnostic information they needed to select the right therapies for his condition.
(more…)
