Aug 26, 2015 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
In provinces across Canada, health systems are dealing with limited budgets, growing populations, and the need to transition to personalized medicine
Medical laboratories in Canada have something in common with medical laboratories in most other developed nations. Demand for healthcare services exceeds capacity, even as the healthcare system struggles to find adequate funding. This puts pathology labs in a bind, since they are asked to test growing numbers of specimens even as budgets are flat or shrinking.
That means the biggest two challenges facing labs in Canada will be familiar to pathologists, clinical chemists and medical laboratory scientists in almost every other developed nation across the globe. One challenge is how to meet the steady annual increase in lab specimens that must be tested. The second challenge is how to do that additional testing even as government health systems are forced to trim budgets year after year. (more…)
Aug 21, 2015 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Smaller clinical laboratories and pathology groups should benefit from shift toward consumer-driven healthcare
High-deductible health plans (HDHP) are increasing in popularity as more consumers opt for lower annual premium costs in exchange for larger out-of-pocket expenses. This shift in health insurance could result in direct benefits for smaller clinical laboratories and pathology groups as more patients have a choice in where they purchase medical laboratory testing services.
From a policy perspective, employers and healthcare strategists hope that using HDHPs to engage consumers will help put market forces back into medicine. Because clinical laboratories and pathology groups increasingly find themselves excluded from provider networks, and fighting to keep access to patients, they should welcome the trend to consumer-driven healthcare.
A logical response to the HDHP trend would be for labs to begin posting their lab test prices on their websites. It would be equally useful to also post quality-performance and customer-satisfaction survey results to allow consumers to make informed choices about the labs they want performing their tests. (more…)
Jul 27, 2015 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, News From Dark Daily, Uncategorized
Payment reform unlikely to require legislation or raft of new regulations, but shift to value-based payment model will cost clinical labs and pathology groups
Today there is wide recognition in healthcare that the days of fee-for-service (FFS) medicine are numbered. But what is less certain is how fast government and private payers will introduce other reimbursement models, such as bundled payments and budgeted payments. Clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups likely will be the most impacted by this payment shift since their economics are driven by high volumes and FFS payment. (more…)
Jul 24, 2015 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations, Uncategorized
With cancer care costs soaring, will health insurers be asking whether the patient outcomes justify new and expensive diagnostic and therapeutic advances?
Medical laboratory companies offering expensive molecular tests for cancer and pharmaceutical companies that sell super-expensive cancer drugs are ready to hit the financial wall with payers and the healthcare system. That’s the opinion of Paul Keckley, Ph.D, a widely-read healthcare strategist.
Keckley warns that the cost of cancer care management is nearing a tipping point where the relative value of innovations may no longer outweigh the cost. In this new environment, Keckley expects pathologists, medical laboratory scientists, and others working in cancer care to face challenges over the cost-effectiveness of their diagnostic and therapeutic advances. (more…)
Jul 21, 2015 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, Uncategorized
In response to healthcare’s transformation, a pathologist and a lab CEO describe two powerful ways that medical laboratories can collaborate with physicians, patients, health systems, and health insurers to deliver more value
DATELINE: Phoenix, Arizona—It may be appropriate that, with the pace of change heating up in both healthcare and the clinical laboratory industry, it was here in the hot Sonoran Desert that more than 500 medical laboratory professionals gathered last week for the annual Sunquest User Group Conference (SUG) hosted by Sunquest Information Systems. (more…)
Jul 20, 2015 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Laboratory Testing, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
HDL also got approval to question executives from UnitedHealthcare in court over unpaid claims, its third dispute with a health insurance company
Following a string of major setbacks, Health Diagnostic Laboratory (HDL) of Richmond, Virginia, put itself up for sale last week. This action comes after HDL’s announcement in April that it would pay more than $100 million to settle charges with federal investigators that it violated the False Claims Act. Then, early last month, the clinical laboratory company filed for bankruptcy protection.
On Tuesday, July 14, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Kevin R. Huennekens approved HDL’s request to put itself up for sale through a court-monitored auction, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. No potential buyer has been named, but the clinical laboratory company has businesses that are interested in acquiring HDL, the Times-Dispatch added. (more…)
