Thirty US Congress Members Ask HHS To Send COVID-19 Testing Funds Directly to Clinical Laboratories

Jun 12, 2020 | Uncategorized

US Representatives want clinical laboratories to have better support for their increased efforts to expand testing for the coronavirus On June 8, Congressmen Tom Reed (NY-23), Scott Peters (CA-52), and 28 other members of the US House of Representatives sent a letter to Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar requesting that funds from the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act (H.R.266) be sent directly to clinical laboratories that have...

Federal Judge Blocks New HHS Rule That Would Have Required Pharmaceutical Companies to Include Pricing in Television Ads

Oct 4, 2019 | Laboratory Pathology

Drug companies claim HHS rule violates their first amendment rights, but added web links to drug prices in their TV ads anyway Will American consumers ever see the prices of their prescription drugs? That almost happened this summer, when a Trump administration healthcare transparency initiative would have required pharmaceutical companies to include prices in drug advertisements. But that requirement was halted by a federal judge one day before it was scheduled to take effect. The measure,...

Medicare Clinical Laboratory Price Cuts and Cost-cutting Predicted to be 2018’s Two Biggest Trends for Medical Laboratories in the United States

Sep 20, 2017 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily

To offset the loss of revenue from the price cuts to Medicare Part B clinical laboratory tests, labs will need to aggressively—but wisely—slash costs to balance their budgets Any day now, Medicare officials will announce the Medicare Part B Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) for 2018. Both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) have issued reports indicating that these fee cuts will total $400...

Recent Study Confirms that Clinical Laboratories and Pathologists Have an Opportunity to Help Educate Consumers in Key Health Information, such as Cholesterol, and Blood Glucose Levels

Mar 11, 2016 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations

Reviewing medical laboratory test results online is a popular resource among consumers, says a different study by Kaiser Permanente More than half of patients and consumers have trouble understanding their health information, along with the steps needed to further improve their health, according to a recent study conducted by HealthMine. This gap in consumer understanding represents a great opportunity for clinical laboratories and pathology groups that want to forge stronger bonds with...

Because It Remains Tough to Achieve Interoperability among EHRs, Congress is Proposing Legislation to Resolve That Issue in Ways That May Help Medical Laboratories

Oct 23, 2015 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations

One new federal law forbids health IT vendors and providers from deliberately blocking information-sharing with competing EHR systems Several years deep into its effort to get physicians and hospitals to use electronic health record (EHR) systems, the federal government has yet to come up with a way to improve interoperability—the ability of EHRs to interface and communicate with other systems. Stage one and stage two Meaningful Use guidelines have failed to successfully address the barriers...