Dec 30, 2016 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement
In this second installment of a two-part briefing, the impact of the Affordable Care Act on healthcare spending by businesses and consumers during the past eight years is assessed
No single piece of legislation during the Obama Administration generated more controversy than the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which became law in 2010. It was touted by proponents within and without the administration as the needed solution to the nation’s healthcare problems.
The two biggest problems with healthcare in the United States are probably the sustained year-over-year growth in total healthcare spending and the large number of Americans who lack adequate health insurance. At the time that the ACA was signed into law by President Obama, there were assurances that this law would help solve both problems.
Thus, at the end of the Obama Administration’s eight years in office, both academic experts and journalists are writing their assessment about how the ACA has changed healthcare in the United States. This is a high-interest subject for medical laboratories and pathology groups, hospitals and health systems, and physicians. (more…)
May 18, 2015 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Micro-miniature intelligent radio devices are poised to revolutionize the connectivity of objects in ways that could open doors to new diagnostic devices to help pathologists detect disease
In the future, both in vitro diagnostics and in vivo diagnostics will utilize ever-smaller devices. The shrinking size of these analytical devices will give pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists new tools to detect disease earlier, while monitoring patient with chronic conditions in real-time in consultation with attending physicians.
Now comes news of a significant breakthrough that will allow researchers to shrink down the size of devices used for a wide range of applications, including medical laboratory testing. Engineers from Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, have created a prototype radio-on-a-chip the size of an ant.
Their invention could enable a vast assortment of gadgets to connect and communicate with each other, and with physicians, via the Internet. The new device has the potential for numerous applications for pathology and medical laboratories, and could be used in many types of diagnostic testing devices, including in vivo diagnostics. (more…)
Nov 23, 2012 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Hot competition for genetic testing market share is a signal to medical laboratories to ramp up their molecular and genetic testing capabilities
Financial analysts see something of an “old west” style shootout on the horizon for genetic testing in the clinical laboratory testing market. Market leaders in next-generation gene sequencing are prepared to use acquisitions to build dominant shares in a gene testing market that experts say could hit $25 billion by 2022.
Reporters at Bloomberg Businessweek believe that San Diego-based Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) is girding up to take on industry giant Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX). Both Illumina and Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE) are buying up smaller players in the gene testing market.
These two market leaders in DNA sequencing equipment have played important roles in revolutionizing genetic testing. Now, they intend to stake out a share of the fast-growing genetic diagnostics market themselves, a recent Businessweek story reported. (more…)
Sep 4, 2012 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Many products that medical laboratories use will be covered under the new UDI system
You’re reading it here first! UPCs—universal product codes—are coming soon to the medical laboratory analyzers and other products that your clinical laboratory purchases. Under a proposed rule published by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), medical devices will soon have UDIs—universal device identifiers.
You know about UPCs. Those are the ubiquitous “universal product codes” that are found on literally every retail product. UPCs make scanning at the cash register possible. Now a similar system is coming to medical devices, including the lab analyzers, reagents, and other products used by medical laboratories and pathology. (more…)
Aug 24, 2012 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
India’s courts are slowly addressing scope of practice issues in pathology laboratories
Turf wars among medical laboratory professionals about scope of practice—combined with concerns about price-gouging—resulted in the ransacking of three pathology laboratories in India.
On Thursday, June 21, 2012, members of the regional political party known as Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) attacked three pathology laboratories, damaging equipment and furniture. The three medical laboratories were located in the Yavatmal District of Maharashtra. Maharashtra is the third largest, the second most populous, and the richest state in India. Its capital is Mumbai.
This news was reported by the The Times of India in its Hagpur edition, The Maharashtra Medical Laboratory Technologists Association (MMLTA) condemned the attacks. (more…)
