Jun 10, 2011 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Clinical laboratory outreach program at Catholic Medical Center sees new lab competitors entering the Manchester market
DATELINE: MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE—Here in the Granite State, clinical laboratories and pathology groups must respond to a growing number of healthcare market trends. This was obvious to your Dark Daily Editor during his site visit earlier this week to the medical laboratory at Catholic Medical Center, which is one of Manchester’s major hospitals.
Often, states with relatively small populations, like New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, have the luxury of watching the latest healthcare trends emerge first in the major urban centers like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. However, the accelerating pace of change across all of healthcare is changing that situation.
In Manchester, New Hampshire, competition among hospitals in the community is quite intense. According to Roberta E. Provencal, Director of Laboratory Services at Catholic Medical Center, there is equally intense competition in the outreach market for both clinical laboratory testing and anatomic pathology services. “Manchester has about 110,000 people, and there are 1.3 million in all of New Hampshire,” observed Provencal. “Yet, even though these are not large healthcare markets, we have more lab competitors marketing to doctors’ offices in our city than at any time in the past 20 years. (more…)
Mar 31, 2011 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Conference on May 5 about clinical laboratory and pathology mergers and acquisitions
For owners and sellers of clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups in the United States, the past six months have been rosy times. That’s because buyers have stepped up and paid strong prices for the medical laboratory companies and pathology testing firms that came to market during this time.
Experts predict that merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the clinical laboratory industry will continue to be robust. Several factors reinforce this optimistic prediction.
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Mar 21, 2011 | Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Celera is not a medical laboratory, but develops biomarkers and molecular diagnostics tests
For the second time since the New Year, Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) has announced an acquisition. Last Friday, Quest Diagnostics said it had agreed to purchase Celera Corp. (NASDAQ:CRA) for a purchase price that Reuters reported to be $657 million.
What makes this acquisition different from those typically done by Quest Diagnostics and its major competitor, Laboratory Corporation of America (NYSE:LH), is that Celera is primarily not a provider of clinical laboratory tests. Rather, it specializes in identifying biomarkers that can be used to develop genetic tests. It is active in the fields of cardiovascular diseases, cancers and neurological disorders. Berkeley HeartLab is one clinical laboratory testing division owned by Celera.
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Feb 4, 2011 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Quest Diagnostics Incorporated Discloses Facts About Negotiations With Medi-Cal Officials to Resolve Claims Associated with Discounted Medical Laboratory Prices
In California, Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX) and several other pathology testing laboratories, including Laboratory Corporation of America (NYSE: LH), have found themselves caught in the twin jaws of a regulatory vice. At issue is the long-standing practice in the state of clinical laboratories offering discounted prices for medical laboratory tests that are less than prices paid by California’s Medi-Cal program.
One jaw of the vice is a high-profile whistleblower lawsuit that was filed in 2005, and unsealed by then-Attorney General Jerry Brown in April 2009. The suit claims that seven clinical laboratory companies violated state law over a 15-year period by charging certain customers less for medical laboratory tests than what the seven lab companies billed Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. The suit alleges that the Medi-Cal program was overcharged by hundreds of millions of dollars from medical laboratory test claims submitted by the defendant lab companies during this time.
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Sep 15, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Price of 2.5 times revenue makes this a high price for a clinical laboratory
Monday, Laboratory Corporation of America (NYSE: LH) agreed to purchase Genzyme Genetics Corp’s. (NASDAQ: GENZ) fetal genetics and oncology testing division for $925 million in cash. Genzyme has shopped its neo-natal genetic testing business since last year.
LabCorp is paying a purchase price that is 2.5 times Genzyme’s $371 million in annual revenue. This is one of the highest prices paid for a clinical pathology laboratory company since Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX), paid about 2.5 times revenue for Ameripath, Inc. in March 2007. In that transaction, Quest Diagnostics paid about $2 billion for Ameripath, which had annual revenues approaching $800 million at the time of sale.
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