Attention Pathologists! MD Anderson and UnitedHealthcare Ink Bundled Payment Agreement for Cancer Care

If bundled payment becomes more common in treatment of cancer, then anatomic pathologists need a strategy to demonstrate their clinical value to physicians and payers MD Anderson Cancer Center and UnitedHealthcare (NYSE: UNH) announced a bundled payment agreement for the treatment of certain types of cancer. This development has implications for anatomic pathologist who provide cancer testing services to hospitals throughout the United States. The new three-year pilot at MD Anderson’s Head and...

In Florida, UnitedHealthcare’s New Clinical Laboratory Benefit Management Program Triggers Objections from Physicians and Excludes Most Medical Laboratories

College of American Pathologists and associations for family physicians and ob-gyns in Florida have asked UnitedHealthcare to discontinue implementation of BeaconLBS system Medical laboratory testing is at the center of a contest of wills in Florida. On one side is a health insurer that wants to require physicians to obtain pre-notification or preauthorization for a list of clinical laboratory tests. On the other side are the physicians who question the clinical basis for these requirements...

Promising Diabetes Prevention Programs Are Fueling Shift toward Wellness-focused Care and May Encourage More Utilization of Clinical Laboratory Tests

Predictions are that more disease-prevention programs will be developed, creating the opportunity for laboratories to be more proactive in helping clinicians keep patients well Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers take note! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is accumulating a growing body of evidence that its community-based diabetes prevention program is effective at improving the health of participating patients. These auspicious findings may encourage a steep...

Cigna to Preauthorize Genetic Tests

Clinical laboratories and pathology groups serving Cigna beneficiaries can expect to see new requirements for genetic tests used to diagnose breast cancer, colon cancer and long QT syndrome Effective this week, Cigna (NYSE: CI) in Bloomfield, Connecticut, is implementing a new program that requires genetic counseling and pre-authorization for certain genetic tests. This is an important development and clinical laboratory executives can expect to see other health insurers take similar steps....

Illumina Is Using Acquisitions to Challenge Roche in Fast-growing Market for Gene-based Clinical Pathology Laboratory Testing

Hot competition for genetic testing market share is a signal to medical laboratories to ramp up their molecular and genetic testing capabilities Financial analysts see something of an “old west” style shootout on the horizon for genetic testing in the clinical laboratory testing market. Market leaders in next-generation gene sequencing are prepared to use acquisitions to build dominant shares in a gene testing market that experts say could hit $25 billion by 2022. Reporters at Bloomberg...
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