On page 19 of this issue, you will read our Editor's cogent analysis of why healthcare buyers are taking active steps to measure the quality of services provided by hospitals and physicians, then make those measurements available to the public.

The Leapfrog Group's determination to survey hospitals and post the findings on its Web site is a milestone event. Those of us who've been in the healthcare industry for the last two or three decades remember all the battles against making public any type of rating of physicians and hospitals. Mostly this debate has centered around public access to disciplinary findings against "bad" doctors by licensing boards. In general, public access to data ranking provider performance has been successfully avoided.

It now looks like it is about to change. Editor-In-Chief Robert Michel makes a compelling arguement that the Leapfrog Group's measurement initiative is not isolated. Comparable projects are unfolding at NCQA (for health plans) and in California (the insurer consortium that wants to measure medical group performance). This will certainly affect clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups so, once again, The Dark Report is the first to alert our clients to intelligence and market insight of great value.

For my part, I would like to add the prediction that "consumer-concentric" healthcare will end up being the only effective solution to the renewed upward spiral in healthcare costs. However, I also predict that things will get worse before they improve, because of political ineptness in the handling of the nation's Medicare and Medicaid programs. Lab executives and pathologists should not overlook the major influence that government-funded health programs continue to exert on the entire healthcare system.

Unfortunately for all of us, the future will be bleak before it improves. First of all, Medicare bureaucrats cannot react to new technologies and social changes with innovative solutions. Their inept pricing and reimbursement policies have already damaged our healthcare system. By not allowing the free market to establish rational pricing, Medicare is distorting the true value relationship of healthcare services. Then comes the politicians, primarily Congress. Certainly our Congress is a reactive institution, unable to innovate. Thus, it remains to the private sector, both employers and consumers, to drive positive change in our healthcare system.

FNA Clinic Business Becomes Part of Unilab

California will have nation's first chain of fine needle aspiration (FNA) clinics

CEO Summary:  Pathology has a new business model entering the marketplace. The goal of FNA Clinics of America, Inc. is to offer patients speedy access to the FNA procedure and provide referring physicians with a final diagnosis within hours of the FNA procedure. Unilab Corporation recognized the opportunity to support a value added service and gain access to the follow-on testing.

Court Orders Roche to Pay IGEN $505 Million in Damages

It was a big court win for little IGEN International.

Impath Buys Tamtron In Surprise Decision

Further consolidation among providers of anatomic pathology software systems

CEO Summary:  In an unexpected announcement, IMPATH, Inc. announced it would purchase Tamtron Corp., the largest remaining independent vendor of anatomic pathology systems. It was just months earlier that Cerner Corporation acquired Dynamic Healthcare Technologies, Inc. and its CoPath product. IMPATH's goal is to implement Tamtron's PowerPath System throughout its network of pathology clients.

Provider Performance Ranking Now Hitting Healthcare System

Even health insurers want to reward "quality" docs