With Experienced Baby Boomers Retiring in Ever-Larger Numbers, Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups Use New Methods to Improve Productivity, Reduce Costs

All labs face the challenge of coping with shrinking budgets and staffing shortages, which is why coaching, management observation, and continuous improvement initiatives are proving helpful to medical laboratories It’s the biggest generational shift since baby boomers began working in clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups. Across the nation, labs are watching their most experienced and knowledgeable medical technologists and other lab scientists retire. The need to train their...

Facing Increasing Pressure from an Evolving Regulatory Environment, Clinical Laboratories Need to be ‘Inspection Ready’ in 2019

Experts say medical laboratories must overcome staffing challenges and develop a culture of continual inspection readiness Clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups will be entering 2019 facing not only financial upheaval from Medicare Part B fee cuts and narrowing payer networks, but also an increasingly rigorous and ever-evolving regulatory environment. Although the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) requirements have not undergone major changes since debuting in...

Medicare Clinical Laboratory Price Cuts and Cost-cutting Predicted to be 2018’s Two Biggest Trends for Medical Laboratories in the United States

To offset the loss of revenue from the price cuts to Medicare Part B clinical laboratory tests, labs will need to aggressively—but wisely—slash costs to balance their budgets Any day now, Medicare officials will announce the Medicare Part B Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) for 2018. Both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) have issued reports indicating that these fee cuts will total $400...

Coming PAMA Price Cuts to Medicare Clinical Lab Fees Expected to Be Heavy Financial Blow to Hospital Laboratory Outreach Programs

All hospital labs need to understand the negative financial impact to their labs and have a plan to absorb the fee cuts and remain clinically and financially viable If you believe some experts, in just 13 months many of the nation’s hospital medical laboratory outreach programs will experience a financial disaster that could put them out of business and reduce Medicare patients’ access to lab testing services. This event happens on January 1, 2018, when Medicare officials implement substantial...

Lean-Six Sigma Medical Laboratories Begin to Innovate in Ways That Add Value to Physicians, Payers, and Patients

With record attendance of 300 Lean-Six Sigma experts, this week’s conference was a high-energy event that provided medical lab professionals and pathologists with case studies of how to improve lab operations and contribute to better patient care DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS—Yesterday was the conclusion of the 10th Annual Lab Quality Confab, which showcased innovators in clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups. Attendees traveled here from six different countries. One new trend that...
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