Cincinnati’s Health Alliance Dissolves, Was a Pioneer in Consolidation of Clinical Pathology Laboratory Testing
Its Laboratory Alliance Lab Outreach Business was Sold in 2003
Back in the mid-1990s, Cincinnati was the location for a multi-hospital clinical laboratory consolidation that was one of the first and biggest of its time. Now, all but one of the original organizing hospitals of The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati have gone their separate ways.
The original goal was for the alliance to help its not-for-profit health members compete economically. Now this story may turn out to be a cautionary tale about the perils of alliances where health entities share operations but not governance.
Back in 2003, financial struggles of The Health Alliance contributed to its decision to sell ownership of the outreach business of Alliance Laboratory Services, the consolidated clinical laboratory organization, to LabOne, Inc. LabOne’s ownership of this medical laboratory later passed to Quest Diagnostics, Incorporated (NYSE: DGX) when LabOne was itself acquired by Quest Diagnostics in 2005. (See The Dark Report, August 22, 2005, “Quest Pays $934 Million In Acquisition of LabOne.”)