Laboratory Management

The coronavirus pandemic caused the disintegration of many parts of the infrastructure that we rely upon for daily life. Every aspect of daily life was affected. A quick trip to the grocery store to buy a few items became an expedition that required personal protective equipment, or an online shopping experience. The usual commute to…

In 1785, William Cowper penned “The Task,” a poem in which he used the phrase “variety is the spice of life.” Since that time, the expression has been frequently used to express the concept that new and exciting things make life more interesting. The expression continues to be used, at least in part, because people…

Are we doing it wrong relative to the clinical laboratory? To cut to the chase, the answer is YES. In a HBR article by Kaplan and Porter entitled “How to Solve the Cost Crisis in Health Care” they succinctly summarized the root cause of the problem as follows: The Disconnect This practice of measuring the…

Hospitals and healthcare organizations are facing multiple challenges. The transition from fee-for-service healthcare reimbursement to value-based care reimbursement as reflected below is at a difficult phase. Reimbursement from fee-for-service is declining more rapidly than the revenue is increasing from value-based care. This situation compounded by the global pandemic has underscored the precarious financial state of…

This article is a summary of my views on the hospital outreach laboratory market.  Are hospital outreach lab businesses still viable given the Medicare CLFS rate reductions from 2018-2020 and the potential for further rate cuts? Absolutely. Outreach lab services leverage existing hospital infrastructure with excess capacity to achieve a low variable cost per test.…