THE DARK REPORT presents: Staff Your Lab with Top Performers: SURE-FIRE METHODS TO SLASH YOUR LABORATORY'S REFERENCE and SEND OUT TESTING COSTS : May 14, 2009 or BUY AUDIO CD NOW

The Dark Report presents a new audio conference on May 14, 2009…

SURE-FIRE METHODS TO SLASH YOUR LAB'S REFERENCE
AND SEND-OUT TESTING COSTS

How Baystate Reference Laboratories Maintained Clinical Service
while Harvesting Big Dollar Savings

YOUR PRESENTER:
Anne T. Daley, MS, CMQOE, CSSBB, CLC, MT, DLM, Senior Managing Consultant, Ascendium Healthcare Consulting
Jason Newmark, BA, MHA, CRA, Director, Baystate Reference Laboratories, Baystate Medical Center
Sharon Scott, MT(ASCP)SH, JD, Referral Testing and Special Contracts Manager, Baystate Medical Center

Reference laboratory expenses are out of control. With new, complex and specialized testing options on the rise, many labs are seeing a significant increase in overall expenses. Spending more on testing could mean making cuts in other critical areas of your business, resulting in a negative impact on your operations—and your laboratory’s bottom line.

But there is help for your lab. Because when you register for the latest Dark Report audio conference, “Sure-Fire Methods to Slash Your Lab's Reference and Send-Out Testing Costs,” you’ll learn proven techniques that can help your lab do a better job of managing—and reducing—these ever-increasing costs of reference and send-out testing.

Listen as a consultant who acted as Interim Director plus two experts from the Department of Pathology at Baystate Health share key strategies that their lab uses to control costs and reduce overall reference lab expenses. These are tried-and-true strategies that you’ll want to become common practice in your lab.

Baystate’s goal was to reduce overall reference laboratory expenses by 10%. They achieved that and a whole lot more—146% of goal and still counting! Find out how Baystate realized such stunning success—and how you can put some of their ideas to work reducing reference and send-out testing expenses in your lab.

Our panel of experts will explain how they got their program off the ground. They’ll share the results of their efforts, lessons learned and pitfalls to avoid. You’ll come away from this conference with a step-by-step plan that will help you implement a cost-reduction/service improvement program for all your lab’s reference and send out testing.

What gives this event added value is that the audio conference format allows you to assemble key team leaders in your lab to participate in the call. Together, you and your team from one location will learn from our accomplished experts. There’s even the opportunity to ask your own questions and explore the best methods for reducing costs in your lab. All this for one low flat fee of only $195 per dial-in site (through 5/1/09; $245 thereafter). So don’t wait! Reserve your "seat" today for this very special conference.

THE DARK REPORT AUDIO CONFERENCE AT A GLANCE

DATE: Thursday, May 14, 2009

TIME: 1 p.m. EDT; 12 p.m. CDT; 11 a.m. MDT; 10 a.m. PDT

PLACE: Your telephone or speakerphone

COST: $195 per dial-in site (unlimited attendance per site) through 5/1/09; $245 thereafter

TO REGISTER: Click here or call 1-800-560-6363 toll-free

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

Oversight of the lab’s reference and send-out testing expenses: Learn how creating one management position can significantly increase your overall return on investment.
Test code accuracy: How a focus on CPTs, LIS test codes, intercompany chargebacks and manual billing of tests not on Chargemaster can have a major impact on your bottom line.
Reference laboratory contracts: How optimizing group-purchasing contracts, reference lab hot-list, and esoteric testing contracts can increase your profitability.
Reference laboratory consolidation: Streamlining your processes without sacrificing quality.
Third-party billing: Learn the best ways to use this arrangement with expensive genetic/molecular or investigational-use-only tests, and put into practice even if your lab is reluctant to do so.
Clinician use and medical necessity: Strategies to help you control usage and avoid wasting valuable resources.
Make vs. buy analysis: The value of doing this analysis and how often it should be done—which is more often than you might think!

…and much more!

HOW TO REGISTER:
1. Online
2. Call toll free: 800-560-6363.

Registrations accepted until Thursday, May 14, 2009, noon EDT.

Cancellations before 5:00 p.m. EST on Monday, May 11, 2009 may receive a full refund less a $25 service charge.

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 speakers that you can distribute to anyone listening at your location.
A full transcript emailed to you soon after the conference
The opportunity to connect directly with our speaker during the audience Q&A session
- Distinguished Faculty:
  
  Anne T. Daley is a Senior Managing Consultant with Ascendium Consulting. She has 30 years of experience serving the healthcare industry. Prior to joining Ascendium, Ms. Daley served as the Executive Director of Technical Operations for Laboratory Sciences of Arizona and Sonora Quest Laboratories, a large integrated multi-hospital and commercial laboratory network. Her operational background includes laboratory, pharmacy and radiology services in hospital, clinic and commercial outreach operations. Ms. Daley has extensive experience in operational assessment, financial analysis, operational integration or restructuring, quality management systems, process improvement and leadership development. She has helped clients restructure their health system's quality management services, develop a plan to bring back in-house laboratory services that had been contracted out, develop leaders, optimize business processes and design new space using Lean and Six Sigma methodologies while reducing overall expenses in a variety of healthcare settings.
  
  Jason M. Newmark is the Director for Baystate Reference Laboratories and Pathology Services at Baystate Health. He is responsible for the day-to-day management of inpatient, outpatient, and outreach pathology services and has a complement of more than 480 FTEs. Prior to joining Baystate Health, Mr. Newmark was the Director for Ambulatory Services/Operations Manager for Radiology at Stamford Hospital. He has extensive experience with a focus on operations improvement, financial analysis, interim management, and systems selection and implementation. Mr. Newmark has given several presentations at the national level on performance improvement and budget/financial management. After graduation, he spent 5 years as a healthcare management consultant.
  
  Sharon Scott is the Referral Testing and Special Contracts Manager for Baystate Reference Laboratories (BRL). Her primary responsibilities include negotiation of fee schedules and contracts for reference laboratory services, monitoring of referral testing expenses and implementing other strategies such as third-party billing and reference-lab consolidation to reduce overall reference lab test expenses. Ms. Scott also monitors financial terms and conditions for major vendor contracts to ensure that GPO pricing is in place and being used. She has administrative oversight, in conjunction with the laboratory director, of all contracts that BRL has with clients. Before taking her current position, Ms. Scott was the BRL hematology laboratory manager. She has 30+ years clinical laboratory experience with technical expertise in several disciplines, including hematology, chemistry and blood bank. She worked in various hospital laboratory settings before coming to Baystate in 1989.