Jul 21, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Conducted by Sunquest, the meeting introduced medical laboratory professionals to ideas and improved patient outcomes that result when pathologists actively help physicians select the right lab tests and understand how to act upon the results
PHOENIX, ARIZONA—Most pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists are quick to agree that overutilization of medical laboratory tests is a major problem in healthcare. But underutilization of medical lab tests is an equally significant problem. That’s the message delivered here last Monday by pathologist Michael Laposata, M.D., Ph.D., during a presentation he delivered at the Sunquest Executive Summit.
Laposata, who recently assumed new duties as the Chair of Pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, was speaking about the value of what he calls “diagnostic management teams,” or DMTs. In recent years, while at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Laposata and his colleagues introduced DMTs in support of several medical specialties. These DMTs proved quite successful at improving patient outcomes, while reducing the overall cost per healthcare encounter for these patients.
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May 5, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
“Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014” requires most medical laboratories to report market data and allows Medicare officials cut prices of Part B lab tests beginning in 2017
NEW ORLEANS, LA—No single development in the clinical laboratory industry grabbed more attention last week at the Executive War College than news that a new federal law gives Medicare officials the ability to reduce prices of individual medical laboratory tests by as much as 75% between 2017 and 2022.
This law is titled the “Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014” (PAMA). Congress passed this legislation to patch the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula until April 2015. (more…)
May 2, 2014 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
Medical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups are scrambling to respond as healthcare evolves into new models of integrated clinical care and payers seek to reduce reimbursement for clinical lab tests
NEW ORLEANS, LA.—There was more bad news than good news for the 800 clinical laboratory professionals and pathologists who assembled this week in “The Big Easy” to discuss and debate the serious financial and clinical challenges now weighing down the entire profession of laboratory medicine in the United States.
Probably the most unwelcome news delivered to attendees at the 19th Annual Executive War College on Laboratory and Pathology Management, was the contents of the new law titled the “Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014” (PAMA). This was the legislation passed by Congress to patch the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula for one more year. It was signed into law by President Obama on April 1, 2014. (more…)
Mar 31, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
Failing finances at technical pathology laboratories may be the most immediate concern for many pathology group practices
Many clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups now recognize the new reality of the American healthcare system: less reimbursement for laboratory testing. On one hand, the fee-for-service prices for lab tests paid by government and private payers have been aggressively slashed.
On the other hand, all payers have become stubbornly resistant to issuing coverage guidelines and setting adequate prices for the flood of new molecular assays and gene tests coming to market.
These trends have already brought a handful of medical laboratories and pathology practices to the point of bankruptcy, sale, or closure. This is definitely true for the technical laboratories owned by many local pathology groups, which have become unprofitable due to fee cuts. (See below.) (more…)
Mar 24, 2014 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Sales managers at top-performing medical labs and pathology groups are directing the lab sales reps to develop new clients who can refer lab tests that are still adequately reimbursed
In today’s rough-and-tumble healthcare marketplace, every clinical laboratory and pathology group needs a sales manager or sales vice president who is at that top of the game in managing productive sales reps, achieving growth targets, and strengthening their lab’s financial stability.
Labs with strong sales leaders are doing much better financially at a time when payers are slashing the prices they pay for medical laboratory tests. (more…)
