May 26, 2009 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Modern Healthcare’s list of Top Ten Hospital EHR Vendors Has Insights for Lab Managers
Published data indicates that about 90% of the nation’s hospitals have implemented an electronic health record (EHR) system. This remarkable statistic has direct implications for clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups, since typically 70% or more of a patient’s permanent health record is comprised of laboratory test data.
However, the 90% EHR adoption rate among the nation’s hospitals masks a more provocative truth: only a limited number of hospitals and health systems have implemented an EHR system that is fully integrated and presents a complete patient health record in real time. Thus, many hospitals are using EHR systems that fall far short of allowing clinicians to work exclusively with a complete paperless health record.
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May 18, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Anytime there’s a proposal on the table to cut $2 trillion in healthcare spending over 10 years, someone’s financial ox is likely to be gored. Thus, laboratory administrators and pathologists have reason to be skeptical about this development.
It was announced by President Obama at a White House press conference on May 11. Flanked by a cast of luminaries from across healthcare, Obama announced that a variety of stakeholders-described by one reporter as including “a doctors’ lobby, drug makers, hospitals, insurance companies and health care workers”-would work together to reduce the increase in health spending by 1.5% during each of the next 10 years. It was a superlative political theater and the photo op made the news cycle, from newspapers to 24-hour news channel coverage.
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May 15, 2009 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Pathology
When it comes to quoting accurate prices in advance to patients, hospitals are finding themselves caught in a double bind. On one hand, Medicare and some large insurers require hospitals to provide cost estimates for non-emergency procedures. That helps patients know in advance how much they will have to pay out-of-pocket. On the other hand, growing numbers of consumers want precise estimates of their care-in advance of their hospitalization.
Medicare and private payer requirements for accurate price estimates are the primary reason hospitals began boosting their capabilities in this area, But it’s today’s dismal economy, in tandem with the growth in consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs), that are causing more people to request estimates from one or more hospitals before they decide which provider they will use for their healthcare needs.
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May 14, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
It may be that personalized medicine is becoming one of those All-American icons, like apple pie and mom. That’s because personalized medicine, as a concept and goal for the American healthcare system, seems to have universal support. If true, this is a positive long-term development for clinical laboratories and pathology groups.
Take the new president, for example. Barack Obama has long contended that personalized medicine must be at the heart of health care reform. “The issue of getting the right treatment to the right person goes with his [Obama’s] whole emphasis on health reform,” said Mark McClellan, who headed the FDA and Medicare under the Bush Administration. McClellan was speaking about President Obama during an interview with MSNBC. “If we’re thinking about reforming the healthcare system, we should be thinking about what medicine will be like down the road when healthcare reform is fully implemented,” observed McClellan during his MSNBC interview.
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May 11, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Nation’s largest public health district wants to promote personalized medicine
Here’s an unusual development in genetic testing that shows clinical laboratory managers how fast the lab testing marketplace is changing. Two-hospital Palomar Pomerado Health (PPH), California’s largest public health district, recently partnered with 23andMe to introduce a personalized medicine service in North San Diego County.
PPH now sells 23andMe genetic test kits for $399 at express care centers in two grocery stores and an outpatient center. The test kit, Time magazine’s 2008 pick for Invention of the Year, comes with a 30-minute education session by a nurse practitioner.
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