With Reduced Reimbursement from Medicare, Anatomic Pathology Groups and Clinical Laboratories Must Learn to Optimize Collections from Managed Care Payers to Stabilize Financials and Survive the Industry Shift

Jun 22, 2018 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations, Webinars

As PAMA brings estimated Medicare reimbursement cuts of up to 30% over the next three years to a range of typically high-volume tests and diagnostics, medical laboratories that wish to stay competitive must understand the needs of managed care payers and learn how to optimize collections, reduce denials, and communicate value effectively or risk their financial health In what experts have called the biggest financial upheaval for the healthcare industry in three decades, the onset of new...

Direct Primary Care a New Option for Patients to Receive High-Quality Medical Care at Affordable Prices

Jun 20, 2018 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing

Medical laboratories prepared to receive direct payments for services rendered will have an advantage as more physicians’ practices convert to concierge medicine and stop taking insurance or Medicare A growing number of physicians are looking at new care delivery models as increasing costs and narrow networks drive patients into high-deductible health plans (HDHPs). These can include concierge medicine and direct primary care. Clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups will need to...

UnitedHealth Group Says 50% of Seniors Will Enroll In Medicare Advantage Plans within 10 Years; Clinical Laboratories Soon May Have Less Fee-For-Service Patients

Jun 18, 2018 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations

Clinical laboratories will want to develop value-based lab testing services as the nation’s largest health insurers prepare to engage with Medicare Advantage patients in record numbers UnitedHealth Group (UNH), the nation’s largest health insurer, forecasts wildly impressive growth of Medicare Advantage plans and value-based care. If this happens, it would further shrink the proportion of fee-for-service payments to providers, including medical laboratories. Changes to how clinical...

First Time Ever: Less than Half of All Healthcare Practices in America are Physician Owned—Are Doctors Giving Up Their Independence and Will Independent Clinical Laboratories Lose Test Orders to Hospital Labs?

Jun 15, 2018 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing

Often when a hospital health system buys an independent physicians’ practice, the new owner would like its clinical laboratory to serve that medical group After a hospital or health system buys a physicians’ practice, it is common that the new owner has its in-house medical laboratory provide lab testing to the newly-acquired medical group. Such a purchase is generally good for hospital labs, but not so good for any independent lab that, prior to the sale, had been serving the newly-sold...

Polygenic Scores Show Potential to Predict Humans’ Susceptibility to a Range of Chronic Diseases; New Clinical Laboratory Genetic Tests Could Result from Latest Research

Jun 13, 2018 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing

Access to vast banks of genomic data is powering a new wave of assessments and predictions that could offer a glimpse at how genetic variation might impact everything from Alzheimer’s Disease risk to IQ scores Anatomic pathology groups and clinical laboratories have become accustomed to performing genetic tests for diagnosing specific chronic diseases in humans. Thanks to significantly lower costs over just a few years ago, whole-genome sequencing and genetic DNA testing are on the path to...

Six New Jersey Hospitals and Several Major Corporations to Self-Insure Their Million+ Employees; Trend Could Impact How Local Clinical Laboratories Get Paid

Jun 11, 2018 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology

Plans by large-scale employers to self-insure brings into question how clinical laboratories would submit claims and get reimbursed from inside and outside of a corporate provider/payer network Clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups serving the nation’s hospitals and health systems may get increased network access to patients due to new developments in the health insurance marketplace. In recent months, both large corporate players and a number of smaller hospital systems have...