Apr 28, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Industry experts predict private payers will adopt bundled payment arrangements for both inpatient and outpatient procedures
Early evidence indicates that Medicare’s bundled-payment pilot has helped participating providers improve the quality of care while better managing healthcare costs. Should more detailed findings confirm these outcomes, Medicare could decide to expand the range of clinical services it wants covered by a bundled-payment arrangement.
As of the first of this year, in fact, Medicare officials expanded the bundled-payment program associated with the hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) by requiring certain clinical laboratory, anatomic pathology, and other clinical services be reimbursed as part of the bundled payment initiative. This action was taken independent of the bundled-payment pilot program. (more…)
Sep 4, 2012 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Many products that medical laboratories use will be covered under the new UDI system
You’re reading it here first! UPCs—universal product codes—are coming soon to the medical laboratory analyzers and other products that your clinical laboratory purchases. Under a proposed rule published by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), medical devices will soon have UDIs—universal device identifiers.
You know about UPCs. Those are the ubiquitous “universal product codes” that are found on literally every retail product. UPCs make scanning at the cash register possible. Now a similar system is coming to medical devices, including the lab analyzers, reagents, and other products used by medical laboratories and pathology. (more…)
Apr 13, 2012 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Hospital laboratories may find GPOs respond by contracting with more vendors to expand choices of products
Major changes are unfolding in the world of group purchasing organizations (GPOs). As healthcare’s transformation shifts the clinical and financial emphasis of hospitals, health systems, and other providers, these institutions are changing their relationship with GPOs.
In turn, such trends mean changes in the GPO contracts available to hospital laboratories. In the United States, every hospital and health system is typically a member of at least two GPOs. Thus, the clinical laboratories of these hospitals must also participate in the national contracting programs operated by the GPOs.
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