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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Next-Generation Laboratory Information Management Systems Will Deliver Medical Laboratory Test Results and Patient Data to Point of Care, Improving Outcomes, Efficiency, and Revenue

Moving to market are the newest generation of LIMS products designed to serve clinical laboratories while supporting quality reporting initiatives and new sources of revenue

It was Bob Dylan who made a big hit out of the song, “The Times, They Are A-Changin’.” The same could be said for the next generation of software products designed for use by medical laboratories.

To be fully successful, these next-generation laboratory information management systems (LIMS) must be radically different than the generations that came before. For example, medical laboratories are frustrated with the many limitations of older LIS products that still incorporate software technologies that date back to the 1980s and 1990s, such as MUMPS, which stands for Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System.

But the newest LIMS products must do more than simply incorporate the latest technologies in software and cloud-based services. They must support all the ways that clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups generate increased revenue. More specifically, all medical laboratories will be generating vast quantities of molecular and genetic data. Therefore, an effective LIMS must be capable of capturing that data while also enabling the lab to perform certain healthcare big data analyses in support of the referring physicians and parent hospitals.

There also will be the need for medical laboratories to use their LIMS capabilities to support the data reporting requirements of Medicare and private health insurers. Payers increasingly want providers to report their quality monitoring, patient outcomes, and certain cost-of-care parameters. All these are functions that older LIS (laboratory information systems) products were not developed to provide.

Anatomic pathology group stakeholders and clinical laboratory managers understand the vital importance of their LIMS. Laboratory and healthcare workflows depend on the system’s:

  • efficiency;
  • scalability that supports the growth of the lab and medical practice; and,
  • flexibility to interface with modern, point-of-care telehealth technologies in ways that enable labs and practices to engage in today’s precision medicine healthcare initiatives.

The more immediate need is for a LIMS to be capable of supporting Medicare’s Quality Payment Programs (QPPs), primarily the MACRA Merit-based Incentive Payments System (MIPS). Most physicians, including pathologists, will participate in MIPS. The first Medicare incentives or penalties will be paid next year, based on 2018 metrics and performance.

Given all these changing demands of advanced software technologies and the need for medical laboratories to participate in various value-based revenue programs, how might a LIMS empower labs to ensure success and increased revenue?

Quality Payment Programs and Merit-based Incentives

As part of the shift toward value-based care, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) works to drive down costs and increase quality within both care and laboratory environments. MACRA establishes a data-driven payment system to reimburse service providers based on the outcome of services and care episodes, instead of the volume of services delivered or billed.

Combined with reduced payments, MACRA’s incentives and penalties, and Medicare’s QPP/MIPS payment programs, pressure has been increased on healthcare providers and medical laboratories alike. Thus, technology that gives labs a competitive edge is essential for thriving in an ever-evolving and increasingly competitive marketplace.

Meeting MACRA Goals with a Laboratory Information Management System

While electronic health record (EHR) systems have helped to consolidate patient protected health information (PHI), they do little to address the real-time creation of laboratory data and the accessibility of the massive volume of lab-related data stored in the average patient’s medical files.

A LIMS, however, helps to consolidate all this data in an easily accessible and powerful system. Some LIMS even combine with telehealth technologies to make data actionable and available at the point-of-care.

In this type of LIMS, laboratories, physicians, and other care providers all access the same dataset to ensure information is relayed quickly and efficiently. Interaction takes place using cloud-based interfaces, such as mobile apps or web portals. This ensures access to patient data and laboratory test results in a variety of locations without dependence on proprietary communications systems or hardware.

From bustling ERs and surgical wards to phlebotomists visiting long-term care facilities and mobile clinics, collecting and retrieving data becomes streamlined and accessible virtually anywhere.

The chart above illustrates how a LIMS offers increased potential to automate processes and scale operations while keeping physicians, patients, and other critical parties up to date. This increase in efficiency and access to data empowers providers to reach improved patient outcomes and reduce hospital readmission rates, increasing revenue for both clinicians and clinical laboratories. (Graphic copyright: NetLIMS.)

When implemented properly, a LIMS also helps laboratories and healthcare facilities meet the terms of MIPS. This reduces Medicare penalties and ensures payment adjustments, which improve revenue streams even further.

Understanding LIMS and Cloud-Based Lab Systems

To help outline and explain the benefits of a LIMS for laboratories and healthcare facilities, The Dark Report, in conjunction with NetLIMS, a global provider of laboratory information management systems to hundreds of hospitals and commercial laboratories worldwide, has produced a free white paper titled, “The Path to More Revenue: Cloud-Based LIMS, Mobile Apps, and Point-of-Care Telehealth.”

  • This white paper addresses critical concerns, including:
  • Overviews of new technologies;
  • The impact of value-based programs on the lab market;
  • The importance of MACRA and MIPS adherence;
  • How technology, such as a LIMS, can help labs achieve improved efficiency; and,
  • Tips on choosing a LIMS vendor to maximize ROI.

To download your free copy of the whitepaper click on this link:  Or, copy this URL into your browser: https://www.darkdaily.com/whitepaper/the-path-to-more-revenue-cloud-based-lims-mobile-apps-and-point-of-care-telehealth .

Thanks to advances in LIMS design and development, remote patient digital therapeutics, and cloud-based technology, healthcare providers now have unprecedented opportunities to better manage the health of patients with chronic conditions. In addition, it can help you achieve better efficiency, economics, and compliance with MACRA.

This free white paper is your first step toward significantly reducing hospital readmission rates, bridging the gap between labs, physicians, and other healthcare providers they serve, and positively affecting patient outcomes, improving quality measures, and maximizing reimbursements for all services you provide.

—Jon Stone

Related Information:

The Path to More Revenue: Cloud-Based LIMS, Mobile Apps, and Point-of-Care Telehealth

How Close Is the End of Private Practice Pathology as We’ve Known It?

Attention Anatomic Pathologists: Do You Know Medicare Is Prepared to Change How You Are Paid, Beginning on January 1, 2017?

Innovator Hospitals Bring ICUs into the Info Age, Using New Design Approaches that involve Medical Laboratory Tests

 

Does Your Clinical Laboratory or Pathology Group Need More Revenue? Then It’s Time to Become Patient-Centric in Ways That Improve Patient Care

Medical laboratories now taking the steps to deliver patient-centric lab testing services report solid successes in improving patient/physician satisfaction, increasing lab revenue, and gaining more network access

Evidence is accumulating that “patient-centric” medical laboratory testing services are poised to become one of the most important new paradigms to reshape the house of pathology and clinical laboratory medicine in decades. Better yet, patient-centric lab services will earn more revenue for those labs that move fastest to incorporate these capabilities into their service mix.

“The paradigm of patient-center lab testing services couldn’t come at a better time for the clinical laboratory industry. Most labs are reeling from what is now nearly a full decade of successive and painful reductions in lab test prices and lab budgets,” observed Robert Michel, Editor-in-Chief of The Dark Report, which is Dark Dailys sister publication. “After years of aggressive cost-cutting, most labs are down to the bare essentials and staff is overworked. That is why there is an urgent need for an operational and clinical strategy that will earn more payment from payers. (more…)

For Clinical Pathology Laboratories Seeking to Create Value for Physicians and Patients, Real-Time Analytics Systems Are Becoming Indispensable Management Tools

Use of customer relationship management (CRM) systems is becoming more widespread as progressive medical labs and pathology groups use them to boost service levels and win greater market share

If there is a single “big trend” in pathology and clinical laboratory informatics today, it is the acquisition and use of software that makes it possible to access a wealth of data in real time. This trend is due directly to the need for medical laboratories to cut costs while sustaining and improving quality in every aspect of lab testing.

One part of this trend for increased use of real-time analytics can be seen in the decision by some innovative clinical lab organizations to invest in a customer relationship management software system (CRM). These systems make it possible for lab managers to use the CRM to monitor a wide range of activities, particularly in tracking relations with client physicians. Some CRMs also can report data on a variety of medical and pathology laboratory performance measures every hour of every day.

A handful of hospital and health system laboratory outreach programs have recognized how their use of a CRM gives them a competitive advantage in the lab testing marketplace. These labs use their CRMs to boost productivity and profitability of their outreach sales and marketing efforts. (more…)

Penn Medicine Informatics Taps Medical Laboratory Data and Three Million Patient Records Over 10 Years to Evaluate Patients’ Sepsis Risk and Head Off Heart Failure

This healthcare big data project’s tools and predictive models involve real-time monitoring of patient data and are expected to be available soon to other to providers

One healthcare big data project has begun to report progress on using predictive analytics to improve patient care in the diagnosis and management of such health conditions as sepsis and heart failure. This pioneering effort is being done at the University of Pennsylvania Health System’s (Penn Medicine’s), Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBI).

What will be of high interest for pathologists and clinical laboratory executives is how this big data project incorporates lab test results into the effort.

Recently, Penn Medicine announced Penn Signals, a big-data project that, in part, relies on the lab data housed in the academic medical center’s laboratory information system (LIS) as well as its outpatient and inpatient data house in its electronic health record (EHR) system. (more…)

ONC Releases Final Rule for Stage 3 Meaningful Use: What Most Affects Clinical Laboratories and Anatomic Pathology Groups

Meaningful Use Stage 3 focuses on interoperability, which is good news for medical laboratories that must spend time and money to develop effective LIS-EHR interfaces

On December 15, 2015, the final rule for Stage 3 meaningful use (MU) went into effect. By now, pathologists and clinical laboratory managers and personnel are well-acquainted with the MU incentive program and the myriad of challenges it presents for almost everyone working in the healthcare sector.

Although the implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) has caused labs some headaches, the Stage 3 MU requirements could reduce some of that pressure. One of the biggest changes in Stage 3, according to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), is that the ONC is “finalizing changes to remove the menu and core structure of Stage 1 and Stage 2 and reduce the number of objectives to which a provider must attest.” There will be fewer objectives to prove an EHR system is being used in a meaningful way.

That’s good news for providers struggling with EHR attestation. However, the struggle for clinical laboratories isn’t with attestation per se, it’s with interoperability between lab information systems (LIS) and physicians’ EHRs. (more…)

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