Managed Care Lab Contracting:
How To Negotiate The Best Pricing And Terms For Your Lab

Get the latest on UnitedHealth, Aetna, Cigna,
WellPoint, Humana, and more.

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PRESENTER:
Michael Snyder, President, Laboratory Management Services
Jane Pine Wood, Attorney, McDonald Hopkins
Robert Michel (Moderator), Editor-In-Chief, THE DARK REPORT

When contract renewal time rolls around, you probably face the same dilemma every year: How can you negotiate a good contract for your clinical lab or pathology practice when your payers are pushing for even lower reimbursements?

Master the strategies you need to turn the tables on payers during these negotiations and get insider advice on proven ways to win generous reimbursements for your lab when you register for the new DARK REPORT audio conference.

Does your managed care company play hardball at contract renewal time? Do you want better prices and better terms for your clinical lab and/or pathology practice? Get answers to these questions and more when you join us on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 for this special conference on managed care contracting.

Our first speaker is Michael Snyder of Laboratory Management Strategies. As a recent managed care insider, he’ll provide the insight and practical tips you’ll need to convince payers to grant important concessions to your lab and pathology group. Because Michael has been on both sides of the managed care contract table, he knows how payers’ respond to your requests for better terms—and how you can stand your ground and still get what you want.

Our second managed care expert needs no introduction. Jane Pine Wood of McDonald Hopkins is one the nation’s best-informed attorneys on laboratory and pathology contracting. She’ll provide you with up-to-the-minute intelligence on how major payers are altering contract terms and squeezing down reimbursement for lab testing and pathology professional fees—along with effective ways your lab can counter these tactics.

Our two experts will explore new trends in capitation and risk sharing and provide you with the latest payer cost-reduction tactics. You’ll learn the latest negotiating ploys to blunt these payer cutbacks and add dollars to your lab’s bottom line. Find out why regional and hospital lab outreach programs have opportunities to provide local payers with better patient access. Gain insight into the different goals at UnitedHealth, Aetna, WellPoint, Cigna, Humana, and your local Blues—and how to position your lab to be an added-value network provider to these managed care companies, at favorable pricing.

In short, this unique session gives you the simple steps you can put to immediate use in your managed care contract negotiations.

Our audio conference format lets you assemble your key lab team leaders so you can all listen to our accomplished experts. Together, we’ll explore the most productive ways to improve pricing as you renew your managed care contracts. Best of all, you and your team can ask your own questions and get advice from our experts that’s tailored to your specific needs. So don’t wait! Reserve your spot for this timely audio conference by registering today!

For one low price—just $245—you and your entire team can take part in this fast-paced, insightful audio conference. Best of all, you’ll be able to connect personally with our speaker when we open up the phone lines for live Q&A.

Here’s just some of what you’ll learn during this insightful 90-minute conference:

• Is pricing in free fall? Learn the truth about what managed care plans pay to clinical labs and pathology groups.
  
  
• How to win 100% of Medicare fees on your next contract.
  
  
• Why insurers will pay your lab more—but what they want in return.
  
  
• What UnitedHealth, Aetna, Cigna, Humana, WellPoint, and the Blues fear most from your lab—and how you can leverage that fear to win a more equitable contract.
  
  
• Why payers are targeting smaller pathology groups for drastic price cuts and exclusion from networks, and the strategies to turn the table on their demands.
  
  
• The opportunities that hospital outreach labs have with local insurers to fill regional gaps left by the two blood brothers—and how to win favorable network status.
  
  
• New tactics payers use to reduce lab-testing costs.
  
  
• How savvy labs help payers in exchange for higher price on important CPT codes—and how you can, too.
  
  
• Why national labs use "waiver of charges" to keep client physicians when out of network. And the secrets of undermining this approach to win new client accounts.
  
  
• How private insurers now implement Medicare MUEs in anatomic pathology and the techniques to counter misguided payer efforts to implement them.
  
  
• What makes payers vulnerable at contract renewal time. And why putting value-added services into the contract helps you earn additional reimbursement.
  
  
  …and much more!

Your audio conference registration includes:

• A site license to attend the conference (invite as many people as you can fit around your speakerphone at no extra charge)
  
• Downloadable PowerPoint presentations from our speaker
  
• A full transcript emailed to you soon after the conference
  
• The opportunity to connect directly with our speaker during the audience Q&A session
  
  
  ORDER Audio CD Now! Or for more information, call us toll-free at 800-560-6363.
  
  
  Distinguished Faculty:
  
  Michael Snyder is President and co-founder of Laboratory Management Services, a management services company that provides value to the health insurance and laboratory industries. He has more than 25 years of experience in the management of clinical laboratories. The work Mr. Snyder also did inside a national health plan has given him the tools to form Clinical Lab Business Solutions (CLBS), a consulting firm focusing on business development for independent and hospital laboratories. Prior to forming CLBS, he was Vice President of Laboratory Networks for UnitedHealthcare (UHC). In that capacity, he directed the national strategy for laboratory services and participated in the development of UHC’s national provider network. Additionally, Mr. Snyder served as Director of Business Development for Mount Sinai Hospital’s Center for Clinical Laboratories, where he saw outreach revenues triple in the implementation of a business plan that focused efforts on billing solutions and demonstrated the medical center’s laboratory to attending faculty.
  
  

  Jane Pine Wood is a member of McDonald Hopkins, LLC, who specializes in health law, which includes regulatory, compliance, and contractual matters, including Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement Issues. Ms. Wood represents physicians, hospitals, clinical and anatomic laboratories, imaging centers, home health agencies, mental health providers, clinics, independent practice associations and integrated delivery systems in corporate, regulatory, reimbursement, contractual and other areas. She received her J.D. degree in 1987 from Vanderbilt University School of Law and is a member of the Massachusetts State, Ohio State and American Bar Associations and is a member of the American Health Lawyers Association.
  
  
  
  

  Robert L. Michel is Editor-In-Chief of THE DARK REPORT, a business intelligence service for laboratory CEOs, Administrators, and Pathologists. Mr. Michel has been a passionate advocate for leadership development in the laboratory and pathology industries. He has written and spoken extensively about the strategic management successes of the nation’s “best of class” laboratories. He brings keen insight and lots of experience to the topic of culture change in laboratory organizations.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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© 2008 The Dark Group, Inc.