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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Class Action Lawsuit Filed in California Names Quest Diagnostics Incorporated as Defendant and Alleges Violation of Antitrust Laws involving Medical Lab Testing

Quest has not yet commented on the lawsuit, which was filed by three individuals who had clinical laboratory tests performed by the nation’s largest public lab company

In California last Thursday, three California residents filed a class action lawsuit charging Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX) with acquiring competitor medical labs, paying kickbacks to physicians, and developing exclusionary agreements with health insurers to monopolize the market for clinical laboratory testing in Northern California.

Filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the complaint cites violations of the federal Sherman Act and the California Unfair Competition Law, Unfair Practices Act, and the Cartwright Act on behalf of California residents Christi Cruz of San Jose, Colleen Eastman of Hollister, and Carmen Mendez of, Milpitas. All three plaintiffs have used Quest laboratories and paid Quest Diagnostics Incorporated of Madison, New Jersey, for those testing services, the complaint says.

Lawsuit About Clinical Lab Testing Services Filed in Federal Court

The complaint was filed in the court’s San Francisco Division. In the court papers, lawyers for the three plaintiffs explain that injury to competition is manifest in three ways: above-competitive prices, inferior quality of testing, and reduction in choice among providers of routine diagnostic testing. “There is ample evidence that Quest has controlled prices in the relevant market in Northern California since at least 2011,” the complaint explains. (more…)

Blockbuster Pathology Deal Sees Japan’s Miraca Holdings Pay $725 Million to Acquire Caris Diagnostics

Deal may be just the first of more clinical laboratory acquisitions in the U.S by Japan’s largest medical lab testing company

Pathology and clinical laboratory testing companies continue to go global and last week’s big acquisition in anatomic pathology gave one of Japan’s biggest clinical laboratory companies an important foothold in the United States.

Miraca Holdings Inc. (TYO: 4544.T) of Tokyo, Japan, announced that it would acquire the anatomic pathology business of Caris Life Sciences, Inc., of Irving, Texas. Miraca says the purchase is the first ever by a Japanese company of a clinical laboratory testing company in the United States.
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PAML Has New Owner as Catholic Health Initiatives Buys a Stake

Deal with Providence Health gives PAML access to 78 CHI hospitals in 20 states

Yesterday it was announced that Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories (PAML) of Spokane, Washington, has a new equity partner. In a joint release, Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) and Providence Health & Services acknowledged a “definitive agreement in which CHI will assume a 25% equity position” in PAML.

This is a significant development in the laboratory testing industry. It provides PAML with easier access to the capital it needs to sustain ongoing growth. The new agreement also positions PAML as a preferred partner to develop laboratory outreach joint ventures with hospitals owned by CHI, which is the second largest catholic-owned health system in the United States.

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