to private practice pathologists who have lost business to pod labs

[pathstudent]

out of curiosity,

if you are in a path group at hospital that has the GI bx or GU bx taken away by insourcing/pad-lobs, how does it work at you tumor boards? Do you have to present the biopsies that they signed out or do their pathologists come present the cases, or do you not present their cases, or does the pathology not even matter because gastos and uros are just a bunch of cheesy slimey jerk-offs that don't care about anything but lining their pockets with an extra 50K a year?

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[2121115]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but true pod labs are not a common thing these days because CMS prevents that. Rather the huge problems are with in-sourcing into an in office lab for GI, GU, etc where the local path's sign out the cases for pennies on the dollar and the clinical group gets the kick back. In these cases, the local path's have signed out the case and would probably present it like normal (just knowing that half the audience are the ones who are taking advantage of them). Also, many community hospitals don't do tumor boards these days anyway.

 

[SLUsagar]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but true pod labs are not a common thing these days because CMS prevents that. Rather the huge problems are with in-sourcing into an in office lab for GI, GU, etc where the local path's sign out the cases for pennies on the dollar and the clinical group gets the kick back. In these cases, the local path's have signed out the case and would probably present it like normal (just knowing that half the audience are the ones who are taking advantage of them). Also, many community hospitals don't do tumor boards these days anyway.

Let me correct you then. I'm not sure what CMS is doing about it, but PODlabs are for real, and are seriously affecting community pathologists. Seems like there are currently too many legal loopholes for CMS to do a damn thing right now.
Many (most?) community pathologists do a general tumor board if they aren't doing subspecialty ones, where such outside PODlab cases are often reviewed.

 

[2121115]

Let me correct you then. I'm not sure what CMS is doing about it, but PODlabs are for real, and are seriously affecting community pathologists. Seems like there are currently too many legal loopholes for CMS to do a damn thing right now.
Many (most?) community pathologists do a general tumor board if they aren't doing subspecialty ones, where such outside PODlab cases are often reviewed.

My definition of a POD lab is a lab located in a different state in a large building of many POD labs (also known as condo labs) which is "owned" by a clinical group where they send out their biopsies and profit from the TC then either hire a pathologist in that state to come to their condo and sign it out or have the slides shipped back to their state and have the local group sign it out. I was under the impression that these operations were shut down and now clinical groups are just setting up a lab in the back of their office (to get around this rule) to do the same and bringing in a local pathologist to sign the cases out. My understanding is that it is the latter operation that is still legal and is hurting community pathologists. I am only a trainee though, so I am not on the front lines of this stuff.

 

[pathstudent]

Also, many community hospitals don't do tumor boards these days anyway.

do you know that for a fact? I doubt tha is true an if it is it is pAthetic. That's the whole multidisciplinary approach to patient care.

 

[raider]

Pathstudent has an IQ of:

(A)90.

(B)75.

(C)40.




Correct answer is (C).

 

[pathstudent]

Pathstudent has an IQ of:

(A)90.

(B)75.

(C)40.




Correct answer is (C).

So you are saying that communiy pathologists don't have tumor boards. Well then community medicine us totally ****ing lame. And I hope that anyone with cancer goes to academia.

 

[Thrombus]

So you are saying that communiy pathologists don't have tumor boards. Well then community medicine us totally ****ing lame. And I hope that anyone with cancer goes to academia.

Dude, you are seriously lost. You are not in medical school yet I presume. What exactly are you doing here?

 

[pathstudent]

Dude, you are seriously lost. You are not in medical school yet I presume. What exactly are you doing here?

So you are confirming 21215 and saying comm practice paths don't do timor boards. This is unbelievable to me

 

[mcfaddens]

So you are confirming 21215 and saying comm practice paths don't do timor boards. This is unbelievable to me

Thats a bunch of BS. It depends on the size of the hospital. Yes the small 80 bed rural hospital may not be doing a tumor board, but then again there are probably not enough cases coming out of that place to support a single pathologist. These places are usually covered by a group that covers the small places as well as the larger regional hospital. When an interesting case comes out of the smaller hospital we invite the docs to tumor board at the larger hospital. Most clinicians that cover the smaller hospitals also have privileges at the larger medical facilities. Every job I or friends of mine interviewed had to do tumor board. This is a misnomer and when you get a real job you may soon realize that the division between academics and community practice is not as black and white as you think.

 

[yaah]

I interviewed at a 3-person path group to replace one of the three at a smaller community hospital. They had weekly tumor boards.

My current job is at a large private hospital and we not only have general tumor boards, we have subspecialty tumor boards.

 

[pathstudent]

I interviewed at a 3-person path group to replace one of the three at a smaller community hospital. They had weekly tumor boards.

My current job is at a large private hospital and we not only have general tumor boards, we have subspecialty tumor boards.

Thanks. I found that unbelievable. You have to have tumor boards. I wonder what that 21215216 guy is basing that on.

 

[schrute]

I think the larger, and perhaps more pressing question, is, "who is 'pathstudent'?"
And is he/she in fact a student? And if so, high school, college, medical, or other? FMG?

I read his/her posts with interest because a barrage of people inevitably ask WhoTF this person is and WhatTF is he/she talking about, questions which 'Pathstudent' inevitably ignores only to continue with his now redundant "Go into academics!" tirade.

 

[Pingu]

Yes the small 80 bed rural hospital may not be doing a tumor board, but then again there are probably not enough cases coming out of that place to support a single pathologist.

I'm at a rural hospital with about 200 beds and we have a monthly tumor board. I also rotated through a few suburban community hospitals in residency and they also had tumor boards, some even had subspecialty boards.

It's not like it takes all that much to put a tumor board on, so I don't know why a hospital wouldn't be doing them...

 

[2121115]

Well, I see many of you are still doing tumor boards. Good, I hope I get the opportunity to work in a traditional practice who still does them one day. I have been told that in the corporate lab environment though tumor boards aren't part of daily practice and I have been told that tumor boards are fading away as pathologists are increasingly not associated with a particular hospital. In clinical practices that "own their pathologist" (words I heard first used by a clinician) I am told that they don't do tumor boards either.

Again, I'm just a trainee so my knowledge of this sort of thing is only what I've been told by others. There is a lot of "doom and gloom" out there right now.

Edit: Also, recently I attended a CAP function where "doing a tumor board" was mentioned as a way to "transform pathology". You know how the CAP is emphasizing that now. Basically, to me that implied that pathologists weren't doing tumor boards and it just reinforced what I had been told. Good to hear that pathologists are still doing these and collaborating with colleagues.