Aug 31, 2012 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Health parks are one way health systems will respond to both the demand for integrated care and the need to expand access to those newly-insured because of the ACA law
In Georgia, WellStar Health System, a five-hospital health system, recently opened the first of a series of planned “health parks.” This is a new concept that assembles many different types of health services into a single setting. Medical laboratory testing is expected to be one of the clinical services contained within these health parks.
The arrival of health parks must be viewed from the perspective of accountable care organizations (ACO), medical homes, and similar care delivery models that share the goal of delivering integrated clinical care to patients. Given the essential role of clinical laboratory testing in diagnosis and treatment, it is likely that health parks will establish and offer in-house medical laboratory testing capabilities. (more…)
Aug 27, 2012 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
Fewer office-based physicians practice as a partner or shareholder in their medical group
For decades, the clinical laboratory industry has relied on the medical lab test referrals of office-based physicians as its primary source of patient specimens and revenue. The dominant business model of office-based physicians during these decades has been that of physicians as partners in private practice groups or as shareholders in professional corporations.
Similarly, over the past four decades, the profession of pathology has been dominated by the business model of partner-pathologists in a private group practice or professional corporation. But evidence continues to accumulate that the heyday of private practice anatomic pathology is soon to end.
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Jun 22, 2012 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
PeaceHealth and the P4 Medicine Institute will partner to encourage clinical use of systems-biology based diagnostics in community care settings
PACIFIC NORTHWEST—In the Pacific Northwest, PeaceHealth has become the first community health system to join the P4 Medicine Institute http://p4mi.org/ (P4Mi) in an important collaboration to demonstrate practical clinical applications of systems biology in patient care. P4Mi is itself a spin-off of the Institute for Systems Biology that was founded in 2000 by Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D., and several colleagues.
This is a partnership that pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will want to follow. It shows how innovators in molecular biology are pushing forward to engage community hospitals and physicians’ offices in the fast-developing field of systems biology. Their ambitious goal is to achieve early—even pre-symptomatic—diagnosis through the use of multiplex diagnostic assays to analyze genes and proteins.
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Jun 13, 2012 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Clinical laboratory managers and pathologists will want to develop strategies for adding value under ACO model
One lesson learned from a pilot accountable care organization (ACO) project is that increased utilization of clinical laboratory testing in appropriate circumstances will contribute to improved patient outcomes. Just one year into a pilot ACO partnership, Norton Healthcare and insurer Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) have shown quality gains and some modest savings.
This is encouraging news for pathologists and clinical laboratory managers. It shows that, when physicians participating in ACOs more closely follow evidence-based medicine (EBM) guidelines, the increase in lab test utilization can play the expected role in improving diagnosis and guiding therapeutic choices. However, it should be noted that the results disclosed by the Norton/Humana ACO pilot only cover a short period of time. (more…)
May 11, 2012 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Pathology
AMA opposition to ICD-10 deadline moves HHS to reconsider, while leaving some transition-ready providers rankled
When it comes to implementation of ICD-10 in the United States, the “do it later” crowd seems to have convinced the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of the need to once again move back the compliance date for ICD-10. On April 9, HHS announced a proposed rule to defer implementation by one year, with a new effective date of October 1, 2014.
Clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups have a big stake in a successful transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10. Among other reasons, Medicare Part B claims for medical laboratory tests must be submitted with an appropriate ICD code [provided by the physician who ordered the lab tests] for the clinical lab or pathology group to be paid by the Medicare program.
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