News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

Hosted by Robert Michel

News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

Hosted by Robert Michel
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Physician-Led Accountable Care Organizations May Offer Advantages for Clinical Laboratories

Last year, hospital-run ACOs outnumbered physician-led ACOs, but this year, the opposite is true, creating opportunities for pathologists and clinical laboratories

Until recently, the popular wisdom was that hospitals and health systems would tend to play dominant roles in most accountable care organizations (ACOs). However, new data shows that physicians are holding their own in the formation and management of ACOs.

This is an auspicious development for local clinical laboratories and pathology groups. Physician-run ACOs are much more likely to consider using an independent medical laboratory provider. (more…)

New Study Finds that Hospitals with “Clout” Are Often Paid Higher Prices by Private Insurers

Some hospitals are paid as much as four times other hospitals in the same city for the same procedure

Across the clinical pathology laboratory testing industry, the use of deeply-discounted prices for medical laboratory tests has always been a flash point. But few consumers see the real price of the clinical laboratory test, and even many healthcare policy experts pay little attention to how clinical laboratories and pathology groups will set prices for laboratory tests.

That is not true of the prices hospitals charge. Because of sustained efforts by Medicare, private health insurers, and employers to make prices more transparent for patients, more information on the pricing policies of different hospitals is becoming available.

(more…)

Americans Are Using Convenient Care Clinics in Retail Settings

Retail care clinics-typically a nurse practitioner offering fast patient access to a limited number of clinical services in a pharmacy or other type of retail store-are now an accepted part of the provider mix in the United States. At least two studies published by credible organizations consider retail care clinics, also called convenient care clinics, to be an important source of care.

One study was released by the Center for Studying Health System Change, based in Washington, DC. Using data from the Health Tracking Study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which included 18,000 telephone interviews, this study looked at the use of retail care clinics. It stated that 1.2% of American families reported visiting a retail care clinic in the past 12 months. By contrast, 2.3% of American families said that they have used a retail care clinic in recent years.

What Dark Daily found notable about this study is another finding by researchers. Uninsured families represent 27% of the users of retail care clinics, and the slowdown in the number of new convenient care clinics opening may inhibit access to care through this channel. “If the growth of retail clinics falters, underserved groups already facing access pressures may suffer from the loss of alternate sources of care more than the rest of the population,” stated researchers in the study.

This is an interesting turn of affairs. Dark Daily readers may recall that, several years ago, in the early days of the convenient care clinic movement, the business model of a nurse practitioner and a limited menu of clinical services providing care in a retail store came under plenty of criticism. Now, some healthcare researchers are acknowledging that retail care clinics do provide useful clinical services, at an affordable price, that benefit the uninsured.

The second study, released by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, conducted an on-line poll of 3,000 adults in a nationally-representative sample and found that 16% reported that they had used a convenient care clinic located in a retail store. Interestingly, 17% of the uninsured and 11% of the Medicare enrollees in this survey had visited a retail care clinic. At a minimum, the survey results demonstrate that a significant portion of the American public is aware of these in-store clinics and is willing to use them.

Optimistic predictions that there would be 10,000 retail care clinics by 2010 will not come true. Starting in 2006, there were 60 retail care clinics in 18 states. The Convenient Care Association says the number of such clinics in the United States now totals approximately 1,150 retail care clinics in 38 states.

However, despite the slowdown in the rate at which new convenient care clinics are opening, this service delivery model seems to have established itself as a permanent fixture in the American healthcare system. Last summer, Dark Daily reported that Wal-Mart was introducing telemedicine access to a physician at the retail care clinics it operates in multiple Wal-Mart locations in Houston, Texas

Dark Daily believes that, as demonstrated by the telemedicine example at Wal-Mart’s convenient care clinics in Houston, there will be a steady expansion in the range of clinical services offered at these sites. It is highly likely that laboratory testing will be needed to support these additional clinical services. As that happens, these retail clinics will become both a threat and an opportunity for the nation’s laboratories.

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