Excellent article about lab industry future

[WEBB PINKERTON]

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http://www.aacc.org/publications/cln/2013/february/Pages/Outreach.aspx#

 

[Enkidu]

http://www.aacc.org/publications/cln/2013/february/Pages/Outreach.aspx#

So - big reference labs are cheaper, so they will become more and more attractive under new bundled payment plans. Apparently most physicians will be employed by some hospital or corporation - okay, so pathology is going the same way as the rest of medicine.

But if this is going to be the future - what is life like working for a reference lab? Anybody have any ideas about the salary, hours, and the general access to interesting specimens?

I know that they are "bad" because they don't give pathologists independence and entrepreneurial spirit and all of that - but what is it actually *like* to work at one?

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

So - big reference labs are cheaper, so they will become more and more attractive under new bundled payment plans. Apparently most physicians will be employed by some hospital or corporation - okay, so pathology is going the same way as the rest of medicine.

But if this is going to be the future - what is life like working for a reference lab? Anybody have any ideas about the salary, hours, and the general access to interesting specimens?

I know that they are "bad" because they don't give pathologists independence and entrepreneurial spirit and all of that - but what is it actually *like* to work at one?

The one I worked for was reckless and miserable. Mixed up/lost specimens was the norm. Constant staff turnover. Hell, It was hard getting an accurate list of employees each year for the christmas checks we gave out.

But what do you expect when you see a quote like this:

“The reason they can do this is that Quest and LabCorp are very efficient. Right now, much of the pricing with the major health plans is somewhere around 50 percent of Medicare, which is just crazy. It’s the only health service in the U.S. that actually sells for less than Medicare on the private side.”

 

[Enkidu]

The one I worked for was reckless and miserable. Mixed up/lost specimens was the norm. Constant staff turnover. Hell, It was hard getting an accurate list of employees each year for the christmas checks we gave out.

But what do you expect when you see a quote like this:

“The reason they can do this is that Quest and LabCorp are very efficient. Right now, much of the pricing with the major health plans is somewhere around 50 percent of Medicare, which is just crazy. It’s the only health service in the U.S. that actually sells for less than Medicare on the private side.”

So - the thing that interests me is that reference labs are apparently delivering an inferior service as well.

Theoretically, this inferior service should result in liability that would force them to raise their prices.

But... if they are actually *that* efficient that they can dramatically lower the cost of care and provide good quality, then I guess that I don't care if they charge less than medicare, as long as the individual pathologists are being paid fairly. But are they?

 

[schrute]

The one I worked for was reckless and miserable. Mixed up/lost specimens was the norm. Constant staff turnover. Hell, It was hard getting an accurate list of employees each year for the christmas checks we gave out.

But what do you expect when you see a quote like this:

“The reason they can do this is that Quest and LabCorp are very efficient. Right now, much of the pricing with the major health plans is somewhere around 50 percent of Medicare, which is just crazy. It’s the only health service in the U.S. that actually sells for less than Medicare on the private side.”

1st place in the race to the bottom...

 

[icpshootyz]

Maybe ACO's will drive testing back to the hospitals, who knows. Maybe it will become much more of a challenge for outside reference labs to get reimbursed when they're outside the ACO. We'll see.