Feb 17, 2017 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Ongoing shift to narrow provider networks excludes many medical laboratories, thus causing them to lose access to patients served by these networks
If there is any single trend that has worked against the clinical and financial interests of community clinical laboratories and hospital/health system lab outreach programs, it is the trend of narrow networks. When medical laboratories and other providers find themselves excluded from a payer’s provider network, they lose access to the patients served by that network.
Thus, it won’t be good news that a major consulting company has confirmed that the trend of narrow payer networks is intensifying. The study was conducted by healthcare consulting firm McKinsey and Company.
McKinsey concluded that insurers participating in the government’s Healthcare Exchanges continue to move toward narrow networks of healthcare providers. This trend often leaves smaller clinical laboratories, hospital lab outreach programs, and anatomic pathology groups on the sidelines as insurers attempt to reduce costs. (more…)
May 20, 2015 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
More collaboration between radiologists and pathologists could speed up diagnoses, increase accuracy, and improve patient outcomes, say advocates of an integrated diagnostic service
For years, certain pathologists and radiologists have floated the idea that an integrated diagnostic service involving both medical specialties could improve patient safety and contribute to improved patient outcomes. Now that the U.S. healthcare system is encouraging tighter integration of clinical services, advocates of an integrated diagnostic service involving radiology and pathology believe that the era of integrated diagnostics may be soon upon us.
There is appeal to the concept of an integrated diagnostic service that would deliver a single, unified report to the referring physician. For example, pathologists and radiologists often work together to work up certain types of cancer. They bring complementary skills to the diagnostic process. Often, particularly in complex cases, their collaboration improves the precision of their respective diagnoses and points the physician to the most appropriate therapies for the patient. (more…)
Mar 16, 2015 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
On May 5-6 in New Orleans, leadership will be a major theme when “the U.S. Army War College meets the Executive War College on Lab and Pathology Management” in a special workshop for executive leaders of labs and pathology groups
Some would argue that leadership in medical laboratories today has something in common with the opening line of a famous 19th century novel.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” is the first sentence in “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens’ famous novel. Many pathologists and clinical laboratory managers would agree that this sentence accurately describes today’s marketplace for medical laboratory testing. (more…)
Dec 30, 2013 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
New insights about personal genomes will give pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists different ways to use genetic tests in the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of disease
Here is a human genome curve ball for pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists engaged in genetic testing in their medical laboratories. New research indicates that a larger number of humans than was once believed may have more than one genome. This has implications for many medical and health issues.
Until recently, scientists assumed that, as a rule, each individual had a unique genome. Conditions such as mosaicism and chimerism were considered a rarity.
Greater Incidence of Multiple Genomes in a Single Individual (more…)
Nov 19, 2012 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Medical laboratory professionals will be surprised to learn that some experts claim American healthcare will not see a return on investment from use of EHR systems
It is the popular wisdom today that universal adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems will lead to significant improvements in patient outcomes, while also delivering substantial cost savings to the American health system.
However, this trend also requires clinical laboratories to spend substantial amounts of money to provide electronic interfaces between their laboratory information systems (LIS) and EHR systems of their client physicians.
Until recently, very little criticism of these federal EHR subsidies has appeared in the media. However, some experts now assert that tens of billions of dollars hospitals and physicians are spending to implement EHRs and integrate their information systems will never be recouped by downstream savings. (more…)
