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
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Obama’s $215 Million Precision Medicine Initiative: Will Congress Fund It and Can It Advance Genetic Testing and the Value of Clinical Laboratory Services?

As proposed, the President’s Precision Medicine Initiative would incorporate a large, volunteer study cohort in innovative ways

Even as a new presidential initiative to boost precision medicine makes headlines, there is uncertainty as to how the program can be funded. The Precision Medicine Initiative was announced by President Obama on January 30, 2015.

Many pathologists, clinical chemists, and medical laboratory scientists recognize that such a program would pump additional funds into the research and development of new diagnostic tests that are designed to aid physicians in their practice of precision medicine.

The big question is how to pay for this initiative. President Obama proposed budgeting $215 million to fund this effort. But such funding must be approved by a Congress that is at odds with the President on nearly every issue. Additionally, The American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA) warns that the Food and Drug administration’s (FDA) 2014 announcement to regulate laboratory developed testing services (LDTs) is in conflict with the President’s initiative. (more…)

McKinsey & Co. Study Says Health Reform Law May Cause 30% of Employers to Drop Healthcare Benefit Programs

Obamacare reforms scheduled for 2014 may have negative financial impact for pathology groups and clinical laboratories

It was not welcome news to many healthcare policymakers when McKinsey & Company released the findings of a survey that indicated that as many as 30% of employers were likely to cease offering health insurance coverage to employees when certain mandates of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) take effect in 2014. Criticism of the McKinsey study was swift, and newspapers and television news outlets gave wide coverage to these criticisms.

For pathologists and clinical laboratory managers, this dust-up over the findings of the McKinsey survey of major employers provides a clue as to the more rancorous debates that are yet to come as, year by year, different mandates of the Obamacare law take effect. The details of McKinsey’s survey about how employers are likely to handle employee health insurance coverage are an example of such debates.

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