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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2014’s Healthcare Price Transparency Report Card Reveals Few States Are Making It Easy and Fast for Consumers to See the Prices Charged by Hospitals, Physicians, and Medical Laboratories

One reason is that the healthcare price websites operated by most states are inadequate, ‘poorly designed or poorly functioning’

Efforts to encourage price transparency at hospitals and other providers are making little progress. That’s one conclusion to be made from the second annual Report Card on State Price Transparency Laws, that gave a failing grade to 45 states.

This information is relevant because more consumers are now enrolled in high-deductible health plans. As a consequence, clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups must now handle requests from patients who want to know the cost of their medical laboratory testing in advance of service. As well, many of these consumers want to negotiate prices with their laboratory provider. (more…)

Castlight Health Offers Employers a Cloud-based Price Transparency Tool to Help Employees Shop for Low-Cost, High Quality Health Services

Similar to Oscar Healthcare in New York, this California-based enterprise technology company offers services to make it easy for individuals to see providers’ prices, including medical laboratory test prices

Another company has entered the marketplace with their unorthodox business model to support health insurance programs. One cornerstone feature is a tool that enables both employers and beneficiaries to see the prices of different providers.

This young player in the health benefits marketplace is Castlight Health (NYSE: CSLT). Based in San Francisco, it was founded in 2008. One aspect of Castlight that pathologists and clinical laboratory managers may find particularly interesting is its price transparency tool. (more…)

Hospital Outcomes Transparency Gets New Tools in Washington State

Although designed for use by consumers, pathologists and clinical laboratory managers can use it too

Tally up the State of Washington as the latest to implement a program to bring greater transparency to patient outcomes produced by different hospitals. In recent months, the rates of healthcare associated infections (HAI) in Washington State hospitals became available on the Internet for public viewing.

Just like patients shopping for a hospital that meets their needs, pathologists and clinical laboratory managers can visit this website and compare the HAI rates for different hospitals in the state. Washington State launched this initiative in conformance with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

(more…)

More Hospitals Advertise Shorter Patient Wait Times for Their Emergency Departments

New trend pressures clinical pathology laboratories to shorten turnaround times for key lab tests


Anyone who says there’s not much competition for patients has ignored the marketing battle among hospitals to attract patients to their emergency departments (EDs). In a growing number of cities, major hospitals now aggressively advertise guarantees of ever-shorter wait times in their EDs. This trend has a direct impact on clinical pathology laboratories because they must improve turnaround time (TAT) on lab test results to support faster patient care in EDs.

Using the promise of faster patient access to a doctor in the ED is a fascinating phenomenon. It shows that patients do recognize the difference in service they get from hospitals in their community. (Note to our pathology and laboratory friends in the United Kingdom, where lengthy patient wait times are often an issue: here’s an example of how America’s patients’ desire for better faster access to medical care can provide competitive advantage to the American hospital that provides such access.) (more…)

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