News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

Hosted by Robert Michel

News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

Hosted by Robert Michel
Sign In

PeaceHealth and University of Washington School of Medicine Form Strategic Alliance, Further Integrating Academic and Community Care Settings

There’s more consolidation in the hospital marketplace as institutions look to build scale and offer a fuller menu of healthcare services

Across the United States, multi-hospital health systems and stand-alone academic medical centers are looking for the right collaborations, alliances, and consolidation opportunities. This is happening because hospitals of all sizes and types recognize the need to be part of a comprehensive, integrated provider network in their region.

This is a trend that has ramifications for clinical laboratories and pathology groups that operate in the regions where these alliances and collaborations happen. That is because such collaborations can often change the competitive market for medical laboratory testing in the communities served by the partners in the alliance.
(more…)

Consolidation of Big Hospital Systems May Drive Healthcare Costs Even Higher, Say Some Experts

Recent hospital mergers are creating super-sized health systems that immediately gain leverage over insurers when negotiating managed care contracts

Experts say the nation is experiencing its biggest surge in hospital mergers in more than a decade. Moreover, this latest wave of deals is creating supersized hospital systems that are expected to dominate healthcare and possibly lead to higher healthcare costs.

The ongoing consolidation of hospital ownership means further consolidation of the hospital laboratories that find themselves merged into larger health systems. That will have both good and bad consequences for pathologists and medical laboratory managers working within these organizations. (more…)

Hospitals Report Growing Levels of Bad Debt as Many Patients with High-Deductible Plans Are Unable to Pay Their Medical Bills

Pathology groups and clinical laboratories should be taking steps to collect from patients at the point of care, as a key strategy to minimize patient bad debt

Here’s some bad news for hospital Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and an early warning for clinical laboratory administrators. A rising number of patients with high deductible health plans (HDHPs) are unable to pay their medical bills.

Enrollment in HDHPs has soared in recent years because more employers and health insurers have adopted these plans. HDHPs also are called consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) and typically have annual family deductibles of between $5,000 and $10,000. (more…)

Ranking the Nation’s 25 Largest Healthcare Systems by Employees

Topping the list are, the Veterans Administration and HCA, which together employee almost 200,000 people


Recently, a ranking of the nation’s top 25 healthcare systems by number of employees was published. In the number one spot is the Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Department. It employs 207,000 employees. Ranked number two is HCA, Inc., the for-profit hospital corporation. It has 77,000 employees.

Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will recognize that both the VA and HCA are national healthcare systems. By contrast, New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System ranks number five on the list with 55,048 employees and its locations are clustered in and around New York City.

(more…)

Nation’s List of Top Ten Largest Healthcare Systems Include Some Surprises

Rankings based on annual revenue and the Veterans’ Administration tops the list

When Dark Daily recently published a list of the Top Ten Largest Medical Groups in the United States, not only was it a popular topic, but many readers asked us to present a similar list for healthcare systems. Dark Daily is glad to oblige and presents below a list of the Top Ten Largest Healthcare Systems in the United States, ranked on annual revenue.

This ranking of the Top Ten Biggest Healthcare Systems includes government healthcare systems, not-for-profit healthcare systems, and for-profit healthcare systems. As you will see, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs holds down the number one position, with annual revenue of $40.7 billion. Coming in second on this ranking is HCA, Inc., with annual revenue of $28.4 billion. Of the ten largest healthcare systems, three are owned by Catholic organizations and three are for-profit hospital corporations.

(more…)

;