Dec 3, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
GAO investigates certain business practices of group purchasing organizations
For years, hospitals and clinical pathology laboratories have wondered exactly how much money is saved when they use the services of group purchasing organizations (GPOs). Now a newly-published government report provides interesting details about the financial activities of GPOs.
In response to a Congressional directive, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently studied GPOs and released a report on their findings. The GAO’s report will be of particular interest for pathologists and medical laboratory managers working in hospital laboratories.
GAO Report Looks at GPO Activities in 2008
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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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Apr 17, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Bundled Payment Demonstration Project Changes How Labs Would Be Paid
Efforts in the nation’s capital to reform healthcare are still in the formative stage as the new President and the new Congress consider various approaches. Meanwhile, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) started the new year by launching pilots for a bundled-service payment scheme. Not only may this be the beginning of the end of the fee-for-service payment system, but it has important implications for clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups.
The bundled payment system demonstration projects are a first step to what’s coming next. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, better known as MedPAC , released its blueprint for reforming the delivery system to Congress on March 17 in its annual Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy.
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