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By subscribing to Laboratory Industry Report, each month you'll get an insider's view of the lab industry's most important business and financial trends, plus predictions for the coming year.
In each issue, you find:
- Comparative data on lab pricing
- Information and explanations describing how to deal with healthcare integration, capitation, technology advances, etc.
- Clear perspectives of how your firm is performing vs. the market at large How publicly-traded lab companies are performing and what their top executives earn
- Updates on late-breaking mergers & acquisitions.
Are you up on what's working—and what's not—for laboratories located in a variety of practice settings-hospital, commercial, group practice sites and network systems?
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Laboratory Industry Report is a must for everyone having a vital stake in today's competitive lab marketplace-owner, director, pathologist, CEO, COO, CFO, general manager, administrator, manager, marketeer, or vendor.
With Laboratory Industry Report, you'll get all the business news & insights which are accurate, objective, reliable, and authoritative. Gain a competitive edge for your company or institution today by subscribing today!
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 | LIR November 2006 (full PDF issue) |
| TOP OF THE NEWS
LabCorp awarded United contract
Will CMS crack down on pod labs?
INSIDE THE LAB INDUSTRY
Lab Institute highlights
HOSPITAL LABS
Steady growth for hospital lab testing
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
MDS sold for $1.2 billion
MEDICARE
Medicare Part B premiums to rise 6%
FINANCIAL
Quest revenues up 17%
United CEO resigns over options
Lab stocks soar 11%
INDUSTRY BUZZ
Keys to outreach competition
Full Article |
| Self-Referral Crackdown: Pod Labs in CMS’s Crosshairs |
| The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing changes that will close the Medicare benefit loophole that enables the existence of so-called "pod" or "condo" laboratories, in which labs for several group practices are located in small offices within the same building, and a pathologist moves among them. CMS recently announced a proposal to change the Stark definition of a "centralized building" to exclude both spaces under 350 feet and those that do not permanently house the equipment necessary to perform 90% of its designated health services. Medicare has reportedly received over 2,000 comments on the proposed rules.
Full Article |
| United Healthcare Awards Exclusive 10-Year Contract to LabCorp |
| About a year after issuing its industry-shaking request for proposals (RFP) for laboratory management services to its approximately 28 million health plan members, United Healthcare (Minnetonka, MN), announced that it has awarded a 10-year exclusive service contract to LabCorp (Burlington, NC), effective Jan. 1, 2007. Contract negotiation and implementation, including network communication, system preparation, and related transition activities, are now underway. United’s annual lab spending is $2.1 billion, which is currently split among Quest (20%), LabCorp (6%), physician office labs (34%), and other labs (40%).
Full Article |
| Quest ’06 Revenues Up 17%, Driven by Esoteric Testing and LabOne |
| It was a busy third quarter for Quest Diagnostics (Lyndhurst, NJ). The company spent $230 million to acquire Focus Diagnostics and Enterix while working to wind down operations of Nichols Institute Diagnostics (NID; San Clemente, CA), its troubled test kit manufacturing subsidiary. Quest posted third-quarter revenue of $1.6 billion, up 16.3% from last year. The company attributed 9.4% of the revenue increase to LabOne, which it completed the purchase of on Nov. 1, 2005, while newly acquired Focus added 1% to revenues. So far this year, Quest’s revenues are up 17.1% to $4.7 billion, about 10% of which is due to the LabOne acquisition.
Full Article |
| Medicare Part B Premiums to Go Up 6% Next Year |
| The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that Medicare premiums for Part B services will rise by 5.6% in 2007 to $93.50 per month per beneficiary—the smallest percent increase since 2001 and less than half of the dollar increase in the premium for 2006. The annual deductible is also increasing by 5.6% to $131.
Full Article |
| Lab Institute Highlights Medicare Reimbursement Squeeze, Need for Collaboration |
| Washington G-2 Reports’s 24th Annual Lab Institute program featured presentations from more than 70 lab executives, consultants, and political figures. Below we’ve highlighted some key news and advice given by a few of the speakers:
Full Article |
| Steady Growth Projected for Hospital Lab Sector |
| Washington G-2 Reports estimates that the hospital laboratory clinical testing market continues to grow at about 6.5% in 2006 and will continue at that pace in 2007 to reach approximately $28.4 billion. Although the hospital laboratory’s biggest competitors are clearly Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, many face stiff competition from each other. Still, hospitals are indicating that the laboratory market, especially for hospital outreach facilities, can be a profitable business activity.
Full Article |
| Canada’s Largest Lab Services Provider Sold for $1.2 Billion |
| Global life sciences company MDS (Toronto, Canada) has agreed to sell MDS Diagnostics Services, its Canadian laboratory services business, to Borealis Infrastructure Management in a transaction valued at CAD$1.325 billion (US$1.163 billion). The deal with Borealis, a subsidiary of one of Canada’s largest pension plans, is part of MDS’s strategy to divest its lab services business and focus on the life sciences market. The transaction is expected to close by the end of January 2007.
Full Article |
| UnitedHealth CEO Resigns Over Stock Options Scandal |
| Just as UnitedHealth was getting its laboratory services squared away, the company’s stock options scandal has led to the resignation of its longtime chairman and CEO. William McGuire agreed to leave the company after the release of a report that found he likely received backdated stock options. At the end of 2005, McGuire’s stock options were valued at approximately $1.5 billion.
Full Article |
| Lab Stocks Up 11%; Quest Is Only Loser |
| The G-2 Laboratory Stock Index soared 11% in the five weeks ended October 20, with a whopping 10 stocks up in price and only one down. Year to date, the G-2 Index is up 14%, while the S&P 500 is up 10% and the Nasdaq is up 6%.
Full Article |
| Keys to Outreach Competition |
| Competing To Win . . .Hospital outreach programs surveyed for the Washington G-2 Reports’ Third Annual Outreach Survey cite customer service and quality as the most important part of their "best practices" (34.5%). Surprisingly, only 6.5% of respondents include turnaround time among their key competitive strategies. A far greater concern is proper billing and pricing (13.7%).
Full Article |
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