Milliman Medical Index Predicts Families Will Spend More for Healthcare in 2018 Than Previous Years; Growth Trend Could Impact Clinical Laboratories Unprepared to Collect Fees at Time of Service

Oct 19, 2018 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations

Employers and consumers continue to pay more for health benefits from one year to the next, continuing a trend that is not auspicious for clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups Most clinical laboratories don’t have the capability to collect payments from patients at time of service the same way patients pay doctors during office visits. Thus, Milliman’s annual report which details the increasing amounts patients are expected to pay out of their own pockets should be of interest to...

Recently published White Paper reveals how the use of new microsampling blood collection methods provide reliable, economical collection, shipping and storage solutions

Oct 18, 2018 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations

Many of the newer patient-centered technologies are those based on the concept of remote patient monitoring (RPM). RPM is proving so beneficial for patients and healthcare professionals, it has touched off a new wave of innovation—that of microsampling blood collection technology. Download the free White Paper More technicians, and the clinicians who rely upon them, are adopting patient-centric technologies to improve the quality of patient care and thus support enhanced clinical outcomes....

For Early-State Lung Cancer Detection, GRAIL’s Experimental Clinical Laboratory Blood Screening Test Shows Promise

Oct 15, 2018 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations

Silicon Valley startup is using gene sequencing to identify in the bloodstream free-floating genetic material shed by tumors There has been plenty of excitement about the new diagnostic technologies designed to identify circulating tumor cells in blood samples. Now, a well-funded Silicon Valley startup has developed a blood test that it says holds promise for detecting early-stage lung and other cancers. Though experimental, the screening test—which uses gene sequencing to identify in the...

The Problems with Ancestry DNA Analyses

Oct 12, 2018 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations

Diagnostic medical laboratories may sequence DNA genetic tests correctly, but there are issues with how companies analyze the information In 2017, some 12 million people paid to spit in a tube and have their genetic data analyzed, according to Technology Review. Many companies offer this type of DNA testing, and each of them works with one or more clinical laboratories to get the actual sequencing performed. For example, Ancestry.com, one of the largest direct-to-consumer genetic data testing...

Researchers Easily Reidentify Deidentified Patient Records with 95% Accuracy; Privacy Protection of Patient Test Records a Concern for Clinical Laboratories

Oct 10, 2018 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations

Protecting patient privacy is of critical importance, and yet researchers reidentified data using only a few additional data points, casting doubt on the effectiveness of existing federally required data security methods and sharing protocols Clinical laboratories and anatomic pathologists know the data generated by their diagnostics and testing services constitute most of a patient’s personal health record (PHR). They also know federal law requires them to secure their patients’ protected...

Broad Institute/Massachusetts General Hospital Researchers Develop Multi-Gene Test That Identifies Those at High Risk for Developing Heart Disease and Four Other Potentially Deadly Conditions

Oct 3, 2018 | Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations

Next step is to design Web portal offering low-cost ‘polygenic risk score’ to people willing to upload genetic data received from DNA testing companies such as 23andMe Pathologists and other medical professionals have long predicted that multi-gene diagnostics tests which examine thousands of specific gene sequences might one day hold the key to assessing disease risk, diagnosing diseases, and guiding precision medicine treatment decisions. Now, a research team from the Broad Institute,...