Feb 10, 2020 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
This rural health system has nearly a decade of experience offering cash-only package pricing for medical services including, most recently, inpatient stays While healthcare networks and hospital organizations nationwide argued over pricing transparency, Pomerene Hospital in Millersburg, Ohio, embraced the concept. The not-for-profit hospital developed packages of care that include “one all-inclusive price for tests, procedures, and episodes of care, rather than a lengthy list of itemized...
Feb 3, 2020 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, Precision Medicine
Researchers are discovering it’s possible to determine a person’s age based on the amount of protein in the blood, but the technology isn’t always correct Mass spectrometry is increasingly finding its way into clinical laboratories and with it—proteomics—the study of proteins in the human body. And like the human genome, scientists are discovering that protein plays an integral part in the aging process. This is a most interesting research finding. Might medical laboratories someday use...
Jan 13, 2020 | Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
Experts list the top challenges facing widespread adoption of proteomics in the medical laboratory industry Year-by-year, clinical laboratories find new ways to use mass spectrometry to analyze clinical specimens, producing results that may be more precise than test results produced by other methodologies. This is particularly true in the field of proteomics. However, though mass spectrometry is highly accurate and fast, taking only minutes to convert a specimen into a result, it is not fully...
Jan 10, 2020 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
If insurance plans are removed from the billing cycle for primary care, it’s not clear how clinical laboratories will be reimbursed for their services Direct Primary Care (DPC) is gaining popularity in the United States. This emerging movement enables primary care providers to bill patients directly for services rendered, bypassing traditional health plans. On a large scale, employers can contract with primary care practices directly for their employees’ primary care coverage. The idea is to...
Jan 8, 2020 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
These virtual office visits use artificial intelligence and text messaging to allow real physicians to diagnose patients, write prescriptions, and order clinical laboratory tests Clinical laboratories may soon be receiving test orders from physicians who never see their patients in person, instead evaluating and diagnosing them through a smartphone app. In response to major changes in the primary care industry—mostly driven by consumer demand—mobile app developers are introducing new methods...
Jan 6, 2020 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
Changes in reimbursement models and federal compliance, as well as tougher payer audits, make it critical clinical laboratory managers are fully informed and prepared for what lies ahead in 2020 Not only does January 1st bring the new year of 2020, but it also brings tough challenges for leaders of the nation’s clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups. Most of these challenges are triggered by the ongoing transformation of the American healthcare system. “Healthcare’s transformation...
