Sep 24, 2012 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Clinical laboratories and pathology groups will soon find it important to make it easier for patients to price for medical laboratory tests
Value-based reimbursement is the new frontier for the American healthcare system. Surveys show that employers and insurers are actively pushing the healthcare marketplace to a value-based, competitive paradigm. This means providers—including pathology groups and clinical laboratories—will be asked to deliver greater transparency in both the price and quality of their clinical services. (more…)
Sep 21, 2012 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Pathology groups and clinical laboratories have opportunity to use mHealth to add value to clinicians
Experts predict that healthcare’s use of mobile apps—now being described as mHealth—will evolve into a distinct and primary information channel that will play a significant role in clinical care. This includes how anatomic and clinical pathologists use laboratory medicine to support clinical care.
“[M]obile is a technology that winds its way through everything we’re doing and we’re planning to do,” declared Bryan Sivak, Chief Technology Officer at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), in a recent story published in Modern Healthcare (MH).”[It is] a channel to deliver content… a great way for us to collect more real-time information and connect physicians and patients with each other.” (more…)
Sep 19, 2012 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Uncategorized
Pathologists and clinical laboratory administrators have an opportunity to add value to physicians who are transitioning to new ACO model
It is good news for advocates of accountable care organizations (ACOs). Since the beginning of 2012, an ever-growing number of provider organizations have signed up to participate in Medicare ACO contracts.
This steady increase in the number of hospitals and health systems participating in Medicare and private payer ACOs will have at one interesting consequence. It means that the clinical laboratories will be part of the clinical service mix for the ACOs operated by the hospitals and health systems. (more…)
Sep 7, 2012 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers should not be surprised to see today’s nontraditional healthcare delivery models becoming tomorrow’s industry norm
Big healthcare players are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire unexpected targets. The biggest of these deals signal that healthcare consolidation and integration is a continuing trend. It is also a reminder to clinical laboratory managers and pathologists that the competitive healthcare marketplace is transforming at a steady pace.
Three such deals emphasize that the consolidation trend is alive and well:
- Dignity Health purchased U.S. Healthworks this summer. No terms were disclosed, but some analysts estimate that the purchase price may have been more than $500 million.
- DaVita Partners, a major player in dialysis services, is to purchase Healthcare Partners for $4.4 billion. Healthcare Partners operates 150 clinics in three states, plus has a national network of 8,300 independent physicians.
- United HealthGroup, Inc., in deal announced last fall, acquired Monarch Healthcare, an independent physician association with 2,300 doctors in Southern California. Purchase price was not announced.
Acquisitions Have Potential to Reshape Competitive Landscape (more…)
Sep 4, 2012 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Many products that medical laboratories use will be covered under the new UDI system
You’re reading it here first! UPCs—universal product codes—are coming soon to the medical laboratory analyzers and other products that your clinical laboratory purchases. Under a proposed rule published by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), medical devices will soon have UDIs—universal device identifiers.
You know about UPCs. Those are the ubiquitous “universal product codes” that are found on literally every retail product. UPCs make scanning at the cash register possible. Now a similar system is coming to medical devices, including the lab analyzers, reagents, and other products used by medical laboratories and pathology. (more…)
