Jun 26, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
Complying with this standard will help reduce errors by improving specimen handling and tracking, and also reduce lab costs by boosting accuracy and quality.
Clinical laboratories have about nine months to comply with a new standard for bar code labels. The deadline for compliance to AUTO12-A, Specimen Labels: Content and Location, Fonts, and Label Orientation, is April 29, 2014.
While compliance next year will not affect a lab’s accreditation, in the coming years accrediting bodies, such as The Joint Commission and the College of American Pathologists are expected to require medical laboratories to comply with this bar code label standard.
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Oct 29, 2012 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Digital Pathology, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Uncategorized
Clinical laboratory professionals and pathologists should be aware of significant levels of errors in clinician gene test orders
Almost one-third of medical laboratory test orders for complex gene tests contained mistakes in handling by ordering clinicians. This finding comes from a study by ARUP Laboratories, Inc.. The finding is an early warning flag for pathologists and clinical laboratory professionals that a gap exists between the availability of genetic tests and clinician knowledge of how and when to use them and how to interpret the results. (more…)
Jun 13, 2012 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Clinical laboratory managers and pathologists will want to develop strategies for adding value under ACO model
One lesson learned from a pilot accountable care organization (ACO) project is that increased utilization of clinical laboratory testing in appropriate circumstances will contribute to improved patient outcomes. Just one year into a pilot ACO partnership, Norton Healthcare and insurer Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) have shown quality gains and some modest savings.
This is encouraging news for pathologists and clinical laboratory managers. It shows that, when physicians participating in ACOs more closely follow evidence-based medicine (EBM) guidelines, the increase in lab test utilization can play the expected role in improving diagnosis and guiding therapeutic choices. However, it should be noted that the results disclosed by the Norton/Humana ACO pilot only cover a short period of time. (more…)
Apr 16, 2012 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Upcoming Executive War College conference features experts on molecular and genetic testing
Explosive rates of growth in clinical use of molecular diagnostics assays seen in recent years are about to be matched by a new opportunity for medical laboratory testing. Experts predict the coming “big thing” in clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology will be next-generation gene sequencing (NGS).
This should be welcome news for financially-beleaguered pathology groups and clinical lab organizations. Lab tests that incorporate next-generation gene sequencing technologies are expected to offer clinicians greater value by making it possible to more accurately detect and characterize disease at earlier stages. For this reason, these lab tests are expected to be adequately reimbursed by most government and private payers.
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Jun 21, 2011 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
Major healthcare stakeholders speaking out with criticisms of federal ACO rules
It may be that the Obama administration bit off more than it can chew with its first release of proposed rules for Accountable Care Organizations (ACO). Lining up in opposition to these rules is an impressive list of the nation’s most respected healthcare organizations. Included are Mayo Clinic, Geisinger Health System, Cleveland Clinic, and Intermountain Healthcare.
Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will undoubtedly recognize the significance of this opposition. Health officials within the Obama administration have regularly stated that ACOs should be organized to deliver the same type of tightly integrated healthcare that is the standard at Mayo Clinic, Geisinger Health, Cleveland Clinic, and Intermountain Health. Thus, it is not auspicious for the Obama administration that these four institutions are making public statements that, under the ACO rules as now written, they are not inclined to participate.
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