Jan 23, 2017 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing
Many medical laboratories are working with vendors to optimize supply chain management and align it with patient outcomes
Even in today’s difficult financial environment, many local clinical laboratories and hospital lab outreach programs across the United States are prospering. Their financial stability is largely due to the fact that they have laboratory sales professionals who regularly add new clients and take market share away from their national lab company competitors. It is to honor these industrious lab sales pros that The Dark Report organized the 2016 National Lab Sales Excellence Award.
The new national sales awards were unveiled at the Executive War College in New Orleans on April 26-27. As noted in earlier Dark Daily e-briefings, our reporting on the lab industry’s top sales producers serves two worthy goals: (more…)
Mar 30, 2016 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Digital Pathology, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
IBM Health’s data combined with Truven’s patient records will create an enormous big-data collection representing 300 million patient lives
If any pathologist or clinical laboratory manager still doubts the importance of healthcare big data, the multi-billion-dollar acquisition of Truven Health Analytics by IBM should put those doubts to rest.
Last month, IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM) announced an agreement to acquire Truven Health Analytics, (Truven) for $2.6 billion. Truven is a provider of cloud-based healthcare, analytics, and insights and is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (more…)
Jan 13, 2016 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
Recently-announced partnerships want to use big data to improve patient outcomes and lower costs; clinical laboratory test data will have a major role in these efforts
In the race to use healthcare big data to improve patient outcomes, several companies are using acquisitions and joint ventures to beef up and gain access to bigger pools of data. Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers have an interest in this trend, because medical laboratory test data will be a large proportion of the information that resides in these huge healthcare databases.
For health systems that want to be players in the healthcare big data market, one strategy is to do a risk-sharing venture with third-party care-management companies. This allows the health systems to leverage their extensive amounts of patient data while benefiting from the expertise of their venture partners. (more…)
Dec 16, 2015 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Digital Pathology, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations, Uncategorized
Transition to value-based reimbursement tops Insigniam’s list of factors altering healthcare landscape
Management consulting firm Insigniam recently identified “10 Disruptive Forces in Healthcare”. Several of these development create significant implications for clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups that are navigating today’s rapidly-changing healthcare landscape.
ACA and Aging Population Reshaping Healthcare
“I have been doing healthcare for 33 years at this point. And there has been more change in the last three [years] than at any time, and it’s by a long shot,” declared Donald Casey, Jr., Chief Executive Officer of the Medical Segment of Cardinal Health in Ohio. He was quoted by Insigniam Quarterly.
Donald Casey, Jr., Chief Executive Officer of the Medical Segment of Ohio-based Cardinal Health, has firsthand experience responding to the fundamental changes taking place in healthcare today. Casey points to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and an aging population as the two drivers behind what is a fundamental reshaping of American healthcare. (Photo copyright: Cardinal Health.)
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Feb 28, 2007 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Clinical laboratories have traditionally been the primary storehouse for laboratory test data. Not only has this been a strong source of added value to clinicians, but it positions clinical laboratories to be major players in the approaching age of genetic medicine. Now there’s a new threat on the horizon. Several of the nation’s largest corporations are preparing to handle the electronic health records (EHRs) of their employees.
The first news of this nascent trend was a story in The Wall Street Journal on November 29, 2006. The article stated that in the first week of December, Intel Corp, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., British Petroleum America Inc., Applied Materials, and Pitney Bowes would disclose a plan to provide digital health records to their 2.5 million workers and their dependents.
The plan was announced and the group of employers was identified as the Dossia Founders Group. Collectively, this group is funding the Dossia Network, an independent secure, non-profit infrastructure for gathering and securely storing information for lifelong health records in a multimillion-dollar-data warehouse that will link hospitals, doctors, and pharmacies.
Why, you’re probably asking yourself, would big business want to get involved in the business of electronic health records? As with all things corporate, there is a monetary savings at the root of the corporate goodwill. The companies hope that cutting out the paperwork in health care would reduce administrative costs, duplicative care, and medical errors. In turn, the potential savings would make it easier for employers to continue sponsoring health care insurance for their workers.
Officials say that the Omnimedix Institute of Portland, Ore., will maintain the health records. Omnimedix will gather the information from insurers, pharmacies, doctors and other health care providers. Patients will be able to update the record with items such as their family’s history of illness.
The Dossia Network brings up two long-standing and unanswered questions. First, who owns a patient’s data? These big employers seem to suggest that it’s the patient that owns their own data. When given the opportunity to control their own EHR, many patients will likely opt out of the benefit because of concerns about privacy. Patients fear an EHR with their complete medical history might alert insurers to potential health problems and lead them to deny coverage or increase premiums.
The second question raised by the creation of the Dossia Network is this: Should the US allow corporations to set the standard for the EHR? The fragmented US health system has had little success developing a standard for EHRs, especially a standard that will cross between hospitals and state lines. Now several corporations, with a total of over 2.5 million employees, are preparing to launch their own version of an EHR – with little input from the US health system. Omnimedix is in a rare position of power, where it may be able to define the standard for the EHR that gains wider use in future years.
Lab directors and pathologists should take note of one specific goal of this corporate EHR project-Eliminating duplicate tests as one way to lower the overall cost of healthcare. One interesting consequence of employer-funded EHRs is that their use may provide credible measurements of the actual level of laboratory test over-utilization.
Laboratories wanting to stay abreast of this important trend in EHRs should become familiar with the EHR standard as it is created by Omnimedix and the Dossia Network. They can then prepare the necessary informatics interfaces to allow them to submit electronic results into the individual patient records of these EHR systems.
Related Articles:
Big Employers Plan Electronic Health Records
Five big firms to promote electronic health files
Blog on why physicians should be concerned about the Employers’ EHR program
Cardinal Health Joins Major U.S. Employers in Effort to Make Lifelong Personal Health Records Available to Individuals Nationwide
