Reference Pricing and Price Shopping Hold Potential Peril for Both Clinical Laboratories and Consumers

While multiple studies show reference pricing is an effective approach to reduce the cost of testing and procedures, medical laboratories and consumers alike must continue to focus on quality to ensure positive outcomes The Dark Report in its September 2016 issue highlighted how reference pricing is positioned to become one of the biggest contributors to price erosion medical laboratories and pathology groups have faced in more than a decade. The issue featured details of a 2016 study...

Clinical Pathology Laboratories Should Understand How Wellpoint Used ‘Capped-Pricing’ Strategy to Save CalPERS $5.5M on Surgery Costs

New strategy by employers and payers encourages patients to choose lower-cost providers, or pay the difference over the price cap Payers are teaming with employers to steer patients to lower cost providers. Their common goal is to reduce the cost of care without compromising the quality of care delivered to their beneficiaries. This trend may involve clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups, particularly where a lab is seen as a high-cost provider in its service area. There is...

CALPERS Saves $15 Million in Health Premiums Because Proactive Care Reduced Hospital Inpatient Admissions

Clinical laboratories and pathology groups may need to re-strategize should hospital inpatient admission rates begin declining as a result of proactive clinical care programs More hospitals are ramping up their services in proactive outpatient care. The goal is to reduce hospital admissions and curb costs. The challenge is that fewer admissions and shorter stays mean a drop in hospital revenues. For the hospitals’ clinical laboratories, it also means less inpatient lab test volumes. Hospitals...
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