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       Headlines - April 23, 2012
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R. Lewis Dark: Lab Strategies for Population Health Management

EXTRAORDINARY THINGS ARE HAPPENING WITHIN THE HEALTH SYSTEM of this country. Powerful forces of change and transformation are at work in ways that have yet to be fully understood.

The only certainty about the healthcare system we know today is that it will look very different in the next five years. For those of you who lead clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups, this presents a high-stakes challenge.

It is essential to prepare your laboratory team for the different ways that physicians and patients will utilize laboratory testing. Similarly, payers and employers will restructure existing health insurance plans to drive utilization of lab testing and all clinical services in new directions. These particular developments will be accompanied by new reimbursement arrangements.

This is why I characterize the upcoming years as “high stakes.” Lab leaders need to take time to understand the range of transformative forces now being unleashed by the federal government, by managed care companies, and by employers who fund health benefits for their employees.

In developing such business strategies, lab administrators and pathologists need to be clear about the single most important element that is undergoing change across the entire healthcare system.We are now moving away from an era when “one doctor treated one patient." In its place will be a primary emphasis on “population health management."

In this issue of THE DARK REPORT, we take an important step in helping you understand healthcare’s evolution toward the new era of population health management. Last month, Healthcare Informatics Magazine published its annual list of “Top Tech Trends for 2012." On pages 10-16, you will read about these 10 trends, along with our analysis.

We think the list of top health technology trends provides a useful mirror for lab leaders. Yes, these are the market trends and informatics needs which have hospital and medical clinical CIOs scrambling. But if these are important to hospitals and medical groups, they are equally important to the clinical labs and pathology groups providing lab testing services to these providers. As you read our analysis, keep in mind that the unifying theme of healthcare's coming reform is the transition away from the "one doctor/one patient" emphasis and to population health management.

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MD Self-Referral Issues Target of Utilization Study

In-clinic histology labs and pathology services operated by urology groups come under scrutiny

CEO SUMMARY: When it comes to the in-office ancillary service (IOAS) exception to physician self-referral, the issue of inclinic pathology services has become a hot potato. Publication in Health Affairs of a study of urologists’ self-referral of their patients for anatomic pathology services attracted national media attention. That study was funded by a grant from two national laboratory associations. The Large Urology Group Practice Association was quick to weigh in with its criticisms of the study.



Hospitals Get Bad News Re: TC Grandfather Expire

Anatomic pathologists and rural hospitals need to negotiate new payment arrangements by July 1

CEO SUMMARY: During negotiations to extend the payroll tax cut in February, congressional negotiators agreed to end the technical component (TC) grandfather provision for more than 1,000 rural hospitals.Seeking to save $50million annually, Congress said anatomic pathologists would no longer be able to bill Medicare for the TC services on surgical specimens. Pathologists now need to negotiate with these rural hospitals over the fee for TC services once the new law becomes effective on July 1, 2012.



Form 5010 Updates: Medicare Extends 5010 Implementation For a Second Time, Effective July 1, 2012



Top 10 IT Trends s Send Message for Labs and Pathology Groups

Fast Moving Developments in Health Informatics

CEO SUMMARY: Healthcare's shift away from fee for- service medicine and toward integrated clinical care is widely recognized. However, few lab administrators and pathologists are aware of the even faster transformation underway in healthcare informatics. Presented here are the "Top 10 Tech Trends" identified last month by Healthcare Informatics. A common theme is the need for information technology and healthcare informatics to serve patient care organizations, a new term that describes care models such as accountable care organizations (ACO) and medical homes. In similar ways, clinical labs and pathology groups will need to deploy robust informatics capabilities to serve providers.



LAB BRIEFS: HOSPITAL LAB CLOSED, STAFF EVACUATED AFTER LAB SPECIMEN SPILL
SELF-SAMPLE HPV TEST KIT ALLOWS WOMEN TO COLLECT THEIR OWN SPECIMEN
PSYCHE SYSTEMS, SIEMENS ENTER ALLIANCE TO INTEGRATE LIS AND PATHOLOGY LIS



INTELLIGENCE: Late & Latent

MAYO PICKS FIRM TO DO WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING

CombiMatrix Corporation, of Irvine, California, announced that Richard Hockett, M.D., will be the company's new Medical Director






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