|
R.
Lewis Dark: Laboratories
Should Leverage Their "Crown Jewels"
One
new feature of our annual Executive War College every May is a Lab CEO SUMMIT
which takes place on the Thursday after the Tuesday-Wednesday event. It
attracts a growing number of senior lab executives and pathologists who come to
explore the strategic directions of the lab industry and pathology profession.
This year's Lab CEO SUMMIT was the setting for the presentation of Marc Grodman,
M.D., President and CEO of Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc. of Elmwood Park, New
Jersey, which is our lead story in this issue of The Dark Report. Dr.
Grodman's presentation is a fine example of the lucid market trend analysis that
is occurring in some of the nation's most progressive laboratory
organizations. I think you'll find his thoughts provocative and his
insights directly applicable to your own laboratory situation, regardless of
whether you're part of a commercial lab, a hospital lab, or a pathology group.
Those of you reading this issue of The Dark Report are once again among the
first in the lab industry to learn how and why the laboratory's best asset, its
network of physician clients, is coming under attack by a host of Internet-based
predator companies. This is an early warning about a threat and an
opportunity. I concur with Dr. Goodman's' assessment that connectivity
providers are flooding into the healthcare industry and will transform it in
just as radical a fashion as the managed care companies did during the
early 1990s. I also concur with his belief that, in this new and evolving
health business model, connectivity to a network of physicians is the key
to both survival and prosperity. For that reason, I would categorize the
physician client base of any clinical laboratory as the "crown
jewels." These are worth protecting at any cost.
But winning laboratories will understand that business success relies on more
than protecting the crown jewels. Bio-Reference Laboratories is reaching
out to its physician network to offer enhanced, added-value services ahead of
E-commerce competitors. Laboratories and pathology practices should
recognize the true market value of their physician network. In the world
of interconnected healthcare E-commerce, every lab's physician network is its
best asset to leverage for success, long-term stability, and enhanced profits.
Bio-Reference
Laboratories Ready to Leverage Physician Relationship
New
Jersey Lab prepares E-health services for its physician clients, other clinical
labs
CEO
Summary: As healthcare E-commerce rapidly approaches, clinical
laboratories will find they have a built-in competitive advantage—their
existing business relationship and communication links to physicians
offices. Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc. is moving rapidly to capitalize
on this competitive advantage. It is making sizeable investments to offer
physicians more than just laboratory tests.
New
CEO Takes Charge at Pathology Partners
National
pathology company using a unique business plan to generate revenue growth
CEO
Summary: Pathology Partners, Inc. got a new President and CEO this month.
The company is organized to build and operate independent regional histology and
cytology in support of anatomic pathologists. Its business model is
different than competing pathology companies and Pathology Partners believes
that it will be well-positioned as integrated clinical care becomes the norm.
Executive
War College Identifies Emerging New Laboratory Trends
Case
studies by leading laboratories point to Internet, information as key
CEO
Summary: Disruptive technologies and the arrival of emerged from this year's
Executive War College on Laboratory and Pathology Management. Consensus by
faculty and attendees alike was that every lab organization should have an
Internet business strategy, along with an accelerated implementation timetable.
Columbia/HCA's
$745 Million Settlement Announced
Here's
more to the story, with lessons for study by the clin laboratory industry
CEO
Summary: Although Columbia/HCA will pay the feds $745 million as part of its
recent settlement, the facts of "Medicare fraud" are far from
convincing. Wall Street Journal analyst Holman W Jenkins, Jr. makes a
strong argument that the government was able to pick on Columbia/HCA for a
variety of reasons, most tied to former CEO Rick Scott's unpopular efforts to
consolidate and reform the hospital industry.
Lab
Briefs: Columbia/HCA, Amerinet, Epitope, STC Technologies, Quest Diagnostics
Intelligence:
Late-Breaking Lab News
Expect
an announcement this week that Pathology Consultants of America, Inc. (PCA),
based in Nashville, Tennessee has acquired....
ADD
TO: Pathology PPMs: Pathology
consolidation is ongoing, but is evolving in some unexpected directions.
The number of regional pathology super-practices seem to ...
Patients
Build Their Own Internet Health Records:
The Dark Report has long predicted that patients would use the Internet to
create and maintain their health records. Entrepreneurs are now
offering....
MORE
ON: Patient Record:
A number if Internet sites allow patients to upload and store their medical
records. However, control over privacy remains an issue of concern to many
consumers....
CHANGES
AT CLMA'S EXHIBIT HALL: Another
large diagnostic vendor will change the way it exhibits at one of the two big
summer trade association shows....
|
