Apr 27, 2015 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Weaker finances at the nation’s hospitals causes administrators to further shrink the budgets for clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology services
Hospital admissions across the country continue to be flat or in decline over recent years. The result is less revenue for many hospitals. As a result, administrators continue to shrink the budgets of hospital service lines—including clinical laboratory services. For pathologists and clinical laboratory leaders, this poses the challenge of setting innovative strategies that take into account the changes in payment and delivery models.
Hospital Inpatient Admissions Have Been Declining over Recent Years
Modern Healthcare (MH) recently published a story on the declining inpatient admissions trend. The story, written by Rachel Landen, focused on admission rates at thirteen large hospital systems for the third quarter of 2014. These included: (more…)
Nov 1, 2013 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
In September UnitedHealthcare and its collaborators announced plans to create what is planned to be one of the largest accountable care organizations in Wisconsin
As predicted, national health insurance companies are moving deliberately to be part of large accountable care organizations (ACOs). For example, in Wisconsin, three health systems and one of the nation’s largest health insurers are developing a multi-system accountable care organization designed to compete with the largest ACO in the state.
ACOs Expected to Use Medical Laboratory Testing in Different Ways
For pathologists and clinical laboratory executives, this development is a reminder that ACOs will play a significant role in healthcare’s transformation. Also, these super-sized ACOs will have their own influence on the transformation of medical laboratory testing in this country, since ACOs can be expected to use medical laboratory testing in different ways and are unlikely to use fee-for-service as the primary method of payment for laboratory testing.
In September when UnitedHealthcare (UHC) (NYSE: UNH) announced it was collaborating with two health systems to form an ACO in Wisconsin to cover 100,000 patients. A third health system (Ministry Health) joined the new ACO network a week later. UHC efforts are part of a nationwide strategy to double what it spends to provide care in ACOs. (more…)
