May 19, 2017 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement
Clinical laboratories must stay informed about the success of bundled-payment initiatives because they will need to negotiate a share of these payments where medical laboratory testing is involved
Research published this year concluded that bundled payments for joint replacement services performed on Medicare patients reduce Medicare’s costs without negatively affecting patient outcomes. Because these types of surgeries do not generally utilize many lab tests, the question is still out as to whether bundled payments allow clinical laboratories to be adequately reimbursed for their services.
The study of the bundled payment program was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The researchers sought to determine the cause of the reduction in Medicare payments and hospital savings when bundled payment models for joint replacement surgeries were used.
The research was performed by staff at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). They examined hospital costs and Medicare claims for patients requiring hip and knee replacements at the 5-hospital Baptist Health System (BHS) in San Antonio. (more…)
May 17, 2017 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
Genomics is quickly becoming the foundational disruptor technology on which many new and powerful clinical laboratory tests and procedures will be based
Genomics testing has become accessible, affordable, and in some instances, life-saving. Clinical laboratories and pathology groups are handling more genomic data each year, and the trend does not appear to be slowing down. Here are current trends in genomic research that soon could be bringing new capabilities to medical laboratories nationwide.
Improved Data Sharing
Sometimes genetic tests don’t translate into better outcomes for patients because medical labs are limited in how they can share genomic data. Thus, experts from various disciplines are seeking ways to integrate genomic data sharing into the hospital and laboratory clinical workflow in a form that’s easily accessible to doctors. (more…)
May 15, 2017 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Low-cost assay would be a boon in remote areas, war zones, and emergency departments by providing fast and reliable blood typing without the need for specialized clinical lab equipment, and by reducing demand on type-O blood supplies
Chinese researchers claim to have invented an inexpensive point-of-care (POC), paper-based blood test that can determine a patient’s blood type in seconds and with nearly perfect accuracy.
Such an inexpensive, simple-to-use assay would be game changing for pathology groups and clinical laboratories since traditional tests to classify blood into blood groups remain time consuming and labor intensive despite recent advances.
Changing Colors Reveal Blood Type
Hong Zhang and colleagues at Third Military Medical University in Chongqing, China, published their results in the March 15, 2017, issue of Science Translational Medicine. (more…)
May 12, 2017 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
Unorthodox approach could one day provide clinical laboratories with new market opportunities to offer patients diagnostic services
Patients turning to the Internet to learn about medical ailments, chronic disease, medical laboratory tests, or pathology treatments is nothing remarkable these days. The Internet has become ubiquitous to patients who are engaged in their own healthcare. However, crowdsourcing medical problems to find probable diagnoses for rare medical conditions is a novel approach that is gaining in popularity.
Crowdsourcing is a relatively new type of project outsourcing. It involves acquiring specialized advice, services, and other contributions from a large group of qualified individuals who provide their work through the Internet from locations all over the globe.
The general idea is that more brains are better than few or one when it comes to completing tricky projects. It was only a matter of time before crowdsourcing discovered healthcare and companies sprang up to provide it as a service to patients with difficult-to-diagnose conditions, and to the physicians who are treating them. (more…)
May 10, 2017 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement
Medical laboratories are in key position to advise and guide other healthcare organizations to implementing strategies and technologies that support consumerism in healthcare
Dark Daily has regularly alerted our readers to the fact that employers and healthcare policymakers are seeking ways for consumers to take more active roles in their healthcare. That includes requiring more out-of-pocket payments from patients to control prices, and quality metrics, so patients can select hospitals, doctors, and clinical laboratories based on price and performance.
Capitalizing on such consumerism in healthcare is not only an area where pathology groups and medical laboratories can play a key role, but also a trend where they hold a commanding lead over many healthcare organizations.
Because appointment setting and the ability to review test results has long been in demand by consumers of clinical laboratory services, many blood labs have already implemented easy-to-understand but highly functional patient portals,. Two examples that have attracted national attention are Kaiser Permanente’s “My Health Manager” and Quest Diagnostics’ (NYSE:DGX)” patient portal. (more…)
May 8, 2017 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Mergers that would have reshaped the nation’s largest insurance companies would directly affect the provider networks independent medical laboratories rely on
For pathology groups and medical laboratories, the news about two thwarted deals involving mega insurance companies might be seen as a positive development.
The proposed deals—Anthem’s $48-billion bid to buy Cigna, and a proposed $37-billion Aetna–Humana merger—would have reshaped the US health insurance industry had they not been blocked by federal judges who cited possible harm to market competition, Bloomberg reported.
For now, all four health insurance companies will continue to use their existing provider networks, which is good news for clinical laboratories. Experts had expected the bigger players in each deal—Anthem and Aetna—to possibly prune the provider networks of Cigna and Humana, respectively, which could have financially burdened thousands of healthcare organizations and independent medical laboratories. (more…)
