Tufts Gets Eaten by Labcorp

[Napoleon1801]

Another one bites the dust:

Labcorp Forges Strategic Partnership with Tufts Medicine, Will Acquire Outreach Laboratory Business

Labcorp Expands Diagnostic Testing and Laboratory Services in Eastern Massachusetts to Increase Access, Affordability and Standardized Testing Labcorp and...

www.prnewswire.com

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[wholeheartedly]

☹️

 

[DoctorInQuotations]

How many other university/academic health systems has this happened to? I know LabCorp did something similar with Mount Sinai a couple years ago.

 

[mike-sheree]

This is an inexorable progression as i’ve said for years.

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

You guys better go rural. Otherwise you will be working for them someday

 

[Napoleon1801]

How many other university/academic health systems has this happened to? I know LabCorp did something similar with Mount Sinai a couple years ago.

It's becoming more common: Labcorp Acquires Clinical Outreach Laboratory Services From RWJBarnabas Health

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

Try that in a small town. Labcorp and Quest aren't welcome in rural places.

 

[Alteran]

It's becoming more common: Labcorp Acquires Clinical Outreach Laboratory Services From RWJBarnabas Health

I wonder if these academic pathologists are starting to think they may have trained too many pathologists.....

 

[univlad]

I wonder if these academic pathologists are starting to think they may have trained too many pathologists.....

Likley they are anatomic pathology only. Do the Quest/LabCorp contracts just take clinical pathology work from the hospitals leaving all the AP behind?

 

[mike-sheree]

I wonder if these academic pathologists are starting to think they may have trained too many pathologists.....

No

 

[MetroPath]

I wonder if these academic pathologists are starting to think they may have trained too many pathologists.....

No they don’t care. Why would they care?

 

[AZpath]

Try that in a small town. Labcorp and Quest aren't welcome in rural places.

I have a successful rural practice. My pathology is only mildly impacted but LabCorp and Quest are huge out here too.
The one stop shop is hard to fight. It is staff that has to fill out the requisition for the 1x or 2x a week skin biopsy at a primary care office.
Then they have to call the courier too. You can't afford to have the courier go to every stop every day if there is no specimen.
I have many local primary offices that call for a specimen pick up. Getting the other offices to care is a different matter.

 

[Adrian Cocot]

Try that in a small town. Labcorp and Quest aren't welcome in rural places.

The irony here being that there's lots of small, rural hospitals that can't attract pathologists, and therefore end up shipping their cases to... Quest and Labcorp.

 

[MetroPath]

The irony here being that there's lots of small, rural hospitals that can't attract pathologists, and therefore end up shipping their cases to... Quest and Labcorp.

Yup or they got sh%tty pathologists.

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

A shame. You can make millions, live cheap, become a king, retire early if you want. Try that in a big town.

 

[Napoleon1801]

Likley they are anatomic pathology only. Do the Quest/LabCorp contracts just take clinical pathology work from the hospitals leaving all the AP behind?

Their playbook starts with the CP work which is the easiest to go after. The next move is to get the biopsies and eventually the AP work if they have the resources in the area.

 

[Med Director New England]

How many other university/academic health systems has this happened to? I know LabCorp did something similar with Mount Sinai a couple years ago.

Quest and Umass have a joint venture right next door to this LC /tufts one
Quest and UPMC (Pittsburgh) also
Sure there are many others too.

This is big deal for LC, before this not too much of a footprint for them in New England. Rumor is LC is planning to build a mega-lab in western MA to support commercial efforts in upstate NY / CT / West MA market.

None of these are necessarily bad for pathologists. They still have to be paid by someone to do the work.

 

[mike-sheree]

Quest and Umass have a joint venture right next door to this LC /tufts one
Quest and UPMC (Pittsburgh) also
Sure there are many others too.

This is big deal for LC, before this not too much of a footprint for them in New England. Rumor is LC is planning to build a mega-lab in western MA to support commercial efforts in upstate NY / CT / West MA market.

None of these are necessarily bad for pathologists. They still have to be paid by someone to do the work.

Exactly. Things are moving to an employment model. Would you prefer academia?

 

[MetroPath]

Quest and Umass have a joint venture right next door to this LC /tufts one
Quest and UPMC (Pittsburgh) also
Sure there are many others too.

This is big deal for LC, before this not too much of a footprint for them in New England. Rumor is LC is planning to build a mega-lab in western MA to support commercial efforts in upstate NY / CT / West MA market.

None of these are necessarily bad for pathologists. They still have to be paid by someone to do the work.

Pathologists making BANK for Quest. I don’t know why anyone would want to work for them. Probably can’t find any other job. Go to private practice where you can share profits with your group and make more for yourself instead of making money for Quest.

I DO see how Quest jobs can be good for some who want an 8 hour job and don’t mind making money for someone else.

I got a friend who was burned out coming in on weekends to do extra work at Quest. He’s leaving to another job.

DONT WORK FOR QUEST UNLESS YOU HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE. Your hard earned skills deserve better unless your diagnostic skills suck or you are just plain lazy.

 

[Med Director New England]

Exactly. Things are moving to an employment model. Would you prefer academia?

MD owned pathology practices are dwindling and completely gone in some markets.
> 90 % paths (easily) are employed near me

The worst churn and burns I’ve ever seen are actually in academia. Entire dept’s completely turning over in just a few years b/c of high work load / low pay / painful call schedule.

 

[mike-sheree]

Pathologists making BANK for Quest. I don’t know why anyone would want to work for them. Probably can’t find any other job. Go to private practice where you can share profits with your group and make more for yourself instead of making money for Quest.

I DO see how Quest jobs can be good for some who want an 8 hour job and don’t mind making money for someone else.

I got a friend who was burned out coming in on weekends to do extra work at Quest. He’s leaving to another job.

DONT WORK FOR QUEST UNLESS YOU HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE. Your hard earned skills deserve better unless your diagnostic skills suck or you are just plain lazy.

This is a VERY situational statement. The last full year i worked for quest in 2012 i made $425k with 100% match and all other expected benefits. I was solo med director at ~185 bed hospital. They could not replace me because I “came with the contract”.They bought Ameripath ~2003 which bought our practice in 1996. Granted, that was a huge pay cut from our pre-sale income. My situation was not unique.
Bottom line, if quest, or anyone else, needs you- they pay up. I’m sure that if you’re walking in off the street asking for a job and have nothing to bring to the table that anybody else fresh out of training doesn’t have, you have zero leverage. But that is how it is anyplace.

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

Exactly. Things are moving to an employment model. Would you prefer academia?

Both suck. Don't settle for either. Go rural, create YOUR OWN brand.

 

[mike-sheree]

Both suck. Don't settle for either. Go rural, create YOUR OWN brand.

Webb, your right. But, that last bastion will fall too.

 

[MetroPath]

MD owned pathology practices are dwindling and completely gone in some markets.
> 90 % paths (easily) are employed near me

The worst churn and burns I’ve ever seen are actually in academia. Entire dept’s completely turning over in just a few years b/c of high work load / low pay / painful call schedule.

Academic places are short of pathologists near me. People have left due to high workload.

 

[MetroPath]

MD owned pathology practices are dwindling and completely gone in some markets.
> 90 % paths (easily) are employed near me

The worst churn and burns I’ve ever seen are actually in academia. Entire dept’s completely turning over in just a few years b/c of high work load / low pay / painful call schedule.

What’s going on with RUTGERS? I’ve seen A LOT of jobs being posted today and in the past year. The department blowing up?!?

 

[mike-sheree]

Academic places are short of pathologists near me. People have left due to high workload.

“Short” is relative. I bet the attending staff is nowhere near averaging even 6k s/o per year.

 

[MetroPath]

“Short” is relative. I bet the attending staff is nowhere near averaging even 6k s/o per year.

That’s true.

 

[Med Director New England]

Tufts Medicine eliminating hundreds of jobs as it outsources lab services - The Boston Globe

The health system, which has faced prolonged financial difficulties, on Aug. 3 announced the sale of Tufts Medicine Outreach Laboratory business and some operating assets to Labcorp of North Carolina.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

Webb, your right. But, that last bastion will fall too.

It might but at least you are in a low cost of living place and do whatever the hell you want to do-stay in pathology for less money, farm, tattoo removal or whatever.

 

[Adrian Cocot]

I did the rural thing for a while. Great learning experience, but at a certain point, the extra income you make vis a vis a corporate or urban private practice job isn't worth the fact that you're living out in the sticks. Also, some folks would rather be nobodies in a modern metropolitan city with all its amenities than some bigwig out in East Undershirt.

For all the hate Nassim Taleb gets these days, his advice in Antifragile was actually pretty solid: ensure that your day job is enough to cover expenses while giving you enough free time to pursue a scalable side hustle. And while I'm unsure of the demand for tree cutting pathologists, I'd posit that straighter path to excess or generational wealth lies in capital markets. Your mileage may vary, though.

 

[Zarniwoop]

I don't think investing in capital markets counts as a side hustle like tattoo removal does. You'll probably get better financial returns and better stories at parties with the tattoo removal business.

 

[ScubaV]

This whole side hustle craze is not for me. Pros and cons, I guess, but I don't want to burn myself out trying to FIRE. I'd rather work into my 50s, maybe transition to part-time and be able to relax in the evenings/weekends instead of trying to grow and manage something from scratch on top of my regular work.

 

[Guest8]

This whole side hustle craze is not for me. Pros and cons, I guess, but I don't want to burn myself out trying to FIRE. I'd rather work into my 50s, maybe transition to part-time and be able to relax in the evenings/weekends instead of trying to grow and manage something from scratch on top of my regular work.

Agreed. The stock market is more than enough side hustle for me, and mostly passive. My hours outside of my one job are my time. I don't want to spend that time doing another job. And as it is the money from my first job is far more than I spend anyway - the rest just gets invested.

 

[mike-sheree]

Greed!? Paths are trying to achieve a comfortable lifestyle on ~1/3 of the real-dollar income they enjoyed 30 years ago. That’s not greed.