Aug 21, 2009 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Management & Operations
It’s the second acquisition of a hospital lab outreach program in past six days
Several days ago, a two-part deal was announced between Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) and Caritas Christi Health Care of Boston, Massachusetts. Caritas sold its clinical laboratory outreach business to Quest Diagnostics and both parties formed a “strategic alliance” going forward that centers upon laboratory testing and informatics integration. Caritas will continue to own and manage the laboratories in its six hospitals.
This is the second sale of a hospital laboratory outreach business in the past two weeks. On August 12, Sonic Healthcare (SYD:SHL) acquired Piedmont Medical Laboratories (PML) of Winchester, Virginia. PML was owned by Valley Health, an eight-hospital health system. (See Dark Daily, ‘Sonic Healthcare’s Latest Lab Buying Spree Nets Two U.S. Labs for $20 Million”, August 13, 2009.)
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Aug 19, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
One approach is to bundle payments to hospitals, physicians, labs, and other providers
Momentum is building around a new effort to drive down existing rates of hospital readmissions. Different reimbursement proposals to encourage hospitals and physicians to reduce current readmission rates will likely also change the reimbursement status quo for laboratory testing. For example, bundling Part A and Part B payments may be one approach.
Experts increasingly believe one game changer in lowering healthcare costs and improving outcomes is avoidable hospital readmissions. One in five Medicare patients returns to the hospital within 30 days. Overall, readmissions cost Medicare an estimated $17 billion yearly. Of this total, about $12 billion are believed to be avoidable cases
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Aug 18, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
Hospital labs come in under budget—while still improving quality, service, and revenue
Despite the recession, most first-rank hospital and health system laboratories in the United States remain upbeat about the financial integrity of their organization and their ability to negotiate the deepest economic recession since 1981-82. One reason this is true is the use of Lean, Six Sigma, and similar continuous improvement methods in the nation’s most progressive clinical labs and pathology groups.
Unlike the recession of 28 years ago, clinical laboratories today can use their experienced Lean teams to trim costs without comparable reductions in quality or service. Not surprisingly, clinical laboratories were quick to recognize how, during this economic recession, their existing Lean and process improvement programs could be tweaked with minimal effort to produce maximum operational savings. Thus, hospital labs during the past 12 months have been able to cut significant cost from their operations without any compromise in quality or the level of service they deliver to referring physicians.
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Aug 17, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Young physicians want more transparency in financial relationships
By their actions, Generation Y doctors are sending a clear message that they want to take the ethical high road in their dealings with drug companies and medical device developers. In medical schools across the nation, young physicians are speaking up about what they consider to be one element of greed in their profession.
Their advocacy group, the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), is calling for a crackdown on professional ethics violations. Medical students are particularly concerned about relationships with drug and medical device developers that pose a conflict of interest. To call attention to this issue, AMSA now rates academic medical centers on how well they monitor and control money from drug and medical products companies. These results are available to the public.
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Aug 14, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Clinical laboratories can play a role in two of these ten cost-cutting opportunities
Everyone in healthcare expects significant across-the-board cuts to reimbursement as healthcare reform moves forward. High profile targets for cost-cutting are imaging technologies and physician preference items (PPIs), which include expensive supplies and implant products, including stents, wires, pacemakers, and knee/hip replacement prosthetics.
Hospitals and health systems, in recognition of this major shift in national health policy, are scrambling to stay ahead of these economic and regulatory pressures. It is causing them to closely scrutinize operational costs and implement cost-cutting measures.
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