Feb 13, 2015 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Management & Operations
Accelerating pace of hospital consolidation brings new pressure to pathologists and clinical laboratory directors to maximize the value of pathology services
Large and financially-stable multi-hospital health systems are racing to form regional mega-systems. It’s a strategy to get ahead of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) mandate to improve quality and increase efficiency through coordinated care across the entire care continuum.
This growing national trend means further consolidation of clinical laboratory testing services within the merging organizations. For pathology groups, the new super-systems may encourage the different pathology groups within the system to consolidate into a single practice entity. This would help improve how pathology services are more deeply integrated into the care continuum. It would also facilitate contract negotiations between the pathologists and the parent health system. (more…)
Jan 29, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Big data is poised to change the healthcare ecosystem and that creates opportunities for forward-looking medical laboratories
First-mover academic center, Mount Sinai Medical Center (MSMC), is taking steps to incorporate “big data” into the daily patient-care setting. For the medical laboratory industry, this is a signal event because a major component of healthcare big data will be patient genetic and molecular information.
Included on MSMC’s big data team are its genetics laboratory experts. These are high-profile “data scientists” who help doctors make personalized predictions about their patients. This project shows how integrated healthcare informatics—including clinical laboratory test data—will be a key attribute of healthcare moving forward.
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Oct 16, 2013 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Management & Operations
Recent hospital mergers are creating super-sized health systems that immediately gain leverage over insurers when negotiating managed care contracts
Experts say the nation is experiencing its biggest surge in hospital mergers in more than a decade. Moreover, this latest wave of deals is creating supersized hospital systems that are expected to dominate healthcare and possibly lead to higher healthcare costs.
The ongoing consolidation of hospital ownership means further consolidation of the hospital laboratories that find themselves merged into larger health systems. That will have both good and bad consequences for pathologists and medical laboratory managers working within these organizations. (more…)
