Britain Rescinds Plans for Added Privatization Intended to Help Cut Costs at the National Health Service
Some privatization of pathology and clinical laboratory testing is under discussion
If there is one thing that the healthcare systems of the United States and the United Kingdom share in common, it is the respective budget crises engulfing the national governments of both countries. Each nation is struggling to come up with the funds necessary to pay for the ever-rising cost of healthcare.
In both nations, pathologists and clinical laboratory managers are dealing with the consequences of various initiatives to reform or re-organize the delivery of medical laboratory tests. In the United States, clinical laboratories will see a multi-year reduction in Medicare Part B funding as mandated in the Accountable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). In the United Kingdom, hospital laboratories are being asked to regionalize and consolidate. In some regions, privatization of pathology testing services is under consideration.
