Apr 20, 2010 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Pathologists find new Part A contract model creates added value for hospitals
Now pathologists have a new approach to reverse the trend for hospitals and health systems to pay even less for Part A pathology professional services. Innovative pathologists are crafting what they call a “performance-based Part A Support” agreement that adds new value for the hospital, along with additional compensation for the pathologists.
For pathologists, this is a major breakthrough in stabilizing and increasing hospital compensation for these important services. After all, for most of the past decade, many hospitals arbitrarily cut reimbursement for Part A pathology professional services—even as these hospitals held pathologists to ever-higher standards, including improved patient outcomes and more resources devoted to patient safety in the hospital’s clinical laboratory.
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Apr 19, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
But ACLA’s Alan Mertz says clinical pathology test volume may increase because of other elements of this comprehensive makeover of the nation’s health system
Two provisions in the new healthcare legislation signed into law on March 23 by President Obama will have a direct effect on clinical laboratories, said Alan Mertz, President of the American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA). One provision is an across-the-board 1.75% cut to the clinical lab fee schedule in each of the next five years, effective in 2011.
The second provision directly impacting clinical laboratories is called the productivity adjustment and may also lead to a drop in the annual update for clinical laboratory testing. However, Mertz believes that other provisions in the act may prove positive for clinical labs in the coming years. Mertz made these remarks during a conference call late last month.
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Apr 16, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
Third-generation total laboratory automation (TLA) solutions now used by Japanese clinical labs
Your Dark Daily editor is writing this e-briefing from the 7th Cherry Blossom Symposium in Japan, where it is already Saturday—one day ahead of you readers in North America! The second day of this International Conference of Clinical Laboratory Automation and Robotics is now unfolding.
Yesterday’s opening sessions were chock-full of innovation, insights, and new developments in clinical laboratory automation and robotics. Representing 12 nations, a sizeable crowd of 260 pathologists, clinical biochemists, laboratory scientists, and in vitro diagnostics (IVD) vendors is in attendance.
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Apr 14, 2010 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement
In the long term, quality measures should elevate recognition of the value of clinical pathology testing
Healthcare quality measures continue to increase, both in numbers and in sophistication. These quality measures offer consumers, insurers, employers, and government health agencies some information about the relative value of clinical services. But the holy grail of quality measures—outcomes data and cost data that adequately reflect patient complexity and environment—is still elusive, say experts.
Dark Daily has long predicted that healthcare quality rating and ranking efforts would boost the fortunes of clinical pathology laboratory testing. Since laboratory tests play an essential role in the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of many diseases and health conditions, it stands to reason that physicians would more highly value the knowledge of pathologists and laboratory scientists because it helps them achieve improved outcomes with their patients.
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Apr 13, 2010 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Management & Operations
With more and more consumers participating in high-deductible health plans, health savings accounts, and other forms of consumer-directed health plans, physicians and laboratories have to collect substantially more money from their patients. Collecting from patients while they are still in the physician’s office is the ideal situation, but must patients don’t know what their copayment, deductible, or out-of-pocket is for any given service. In many cases, that means that the physician must bill the insurer, wait weeks for a settlement, and then bill the patient for the balance. Patients are somewhat unlikely to pay a bill for services rendered in the distant past.
To help with the problem of in-office collection, Companion Technologies has created a card reader that accepts patients’ credit, debit, or insurance cards called Companion Direct POC. These small machines feature a keypad, a screen, and a printer that prints a patient receipt. The process works in 4 quick steps:
1. Run healthcare card through Companion Direct POC healthcare card reader and enter patient-specific information
2. Patient information sent to appropriate payer
3. Plan information and eligibility sent back in seconds
4. Print receipt and eligibility information directly from card reader
The systems are inexpensive, running about $20 per month plus a 20-cent per transaction fee. For this nominal fee, doctors can insure that a patient knows what s/he owes before s/he leaves the office.
On January 9, 2007, Companion Technologies was purchased from BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina and sold to The Thurston Group and ABRY Partners. Now that Companion Technologies has more financing than BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina was able to provide this small part of its operations, Dark Daily predicts that Companion Technologies will expand its promotion and implementation of real-time eligibility verification systems across the country at a rapid pace.
Laboratories can expect to be effected in a number of ways by the spread of real-time eligibility verification and real-time claims settlement. First, patients will become accustomed to eligibility verification/claims settlement services from physicians offices and will expect to see them in laboratories, as well. This means laboratories must be prepared to deal with patients on a cash basis, accepting cash, credit cards, and health debit cards. Second, laboratories and pathology groups should enjoy a better collection ratio for patient-billed services because of the real-time billing. Aspiring laboratories will make proactive responses to this trend and see it as an opportunity to create a competitive advantage, keep existing clients, and grab more market share.
Related Articles:
Thurston Group and ABRY Partners Purchase Companion Technologies Corporation
Payers Begin Speeding Up Payment to Physicians The Dark Report, November 2005
