New Broad All-Payor Kickback Law Impacting Laboratories, Commission-based Compensation and more
By Danielle Sloane bio and Chris Climo bio
In a recent piece of federal legislation intended to address the opioid crisis across the United States, Congress enacted a new all-payor kickback law that applies to…
Q&A on Lab Waste Management
By Dan Scungio, MT (ASCP), SLS, CQA (ASQ) bio
Understanding the proper separation and disposal of the various waste types generated in the lab setting is an important piece of managing the…
6 Steps to Data-Driven Transformation
By Nir Kaldero bio
We’re now well into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The First Industrial Revolution was about steam and railroads, the Second about electricity, and the…
The Safety Interpretation
By Dan Scungio, MT (ASCP), SLS, CQA (ASQ) bio
When hospitals were placed on OSHA’s list of “high-risk” workplaces, no one had to ask why. OSHA adjusts that list based on the number of injuries that occur on the job…
Cost Avoidance vs Cost Savings: What’s the Difference?
By Jennifer Dawson, MHA, DLM (ASCP) bio
As I work to spread awareness within the clinical laboratory community about the Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) concept and its benefits as a method to demonstrate…
Changes in laboratory waste management
By Dan Scungio, MT (ASCP), SLS, CQA (ASQ) bio
In the past, if a laboratory or a facility generated less than 220 pounds (or 100 kilograms) of hazardous (chemical) waste each month…
How to Avoid a Laboratory Audit
By Sean McSweeney bio
Laboratory audits have a much harder impact on your lab than intended. As detailed by the NCBI, the audit’s intent is to review and…
Where’s your lab safety manual?
By Dan Scungio, MT (ASCP), SLS, CQA (ASQ) bio
Laboratory leadership should be committed to providing a safe working environment, and they should believe their employees have a right to know…
PAMA Unlocks Golden Age for Innovative Diagnostics
By Chance Scott bio
The publication of the 2018 Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) in January saw a long and heated debate within the lab community come to fruition…
Laboratory Information Systems (LIS): What You Need To Know To Get Paid
By Sean McSweeney bio
Today, laboratory billing claims require more and more data to successfully get paid.
One of the biggest reasons your claims may be getting denied is because…
How to Adjust to the April 2018 Medicare Beneficiary Cards
By Sean McSweeney bio
In a press release on May 30, 2017, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) commented regarding their fraud prevention initiative program and their planned changes regarding…
How PAMA’s Effect in 2018 Molecular Diagnostic Reimbursement Will Make Labs More Money
By Sean McSweeney bio
The year 2018 is slated to be much brighter for molecular diagnostic labs as PAMA fee schedules show a higher payment rate and amount for many cancer genomics and…
Should You Contract with The Blues?
By Sean McSweeney bio
Should you contract with the Blues? Many BCBS insurers around the country are opening up to paneling laboratories where previously that had not often been possible. They are offering…
Diagnostic danger in the lab: Time to reform how we process orders
By Oleg Bess, M.D. bio
I don’t know about you, but I was stunned by the findings from a recent report published by Coverys, a national liability insurer, which I feel should…
Out of Network: 6 Frequently Asked Questions
By Richa Singh bio
As labs face an increasingly challenging reimbursement environment, more providers are doubling down on out-of-network strategies to maximize on collections opportunities…
Outreach Survey Focuses on Clinical Laboratory Industry Trends Amidst Greatest Disruption in Three Decades
By Jeff Myers bio
Accumen Inc. is pleased to announce the launch of the 17th Annual National Hospital and Health System Laboratory and Outreach Survey. The survey is designed to capture intelligence on…
Emergency Staffing ABCs
By Dan Scungio, MT (ASCP), SLS, CQA (ASQ) bio
When I was growing up near Buffalo, New York, experiencing two snow storms in three weeks was no big deal; in fact, it was rather commonplace. When I…
Safety lapses continue with select agents
By Dan Scungio, MT (ASCP), SLS, CQA (ASQ) bio
The approach of the holiday season signals the end of another year. Was this just another year in a long line of them for you in lab safety, or was it…
Employment Law Update: The Weinstein Edition
By Mike O’Brien bio
Your news feed, like mine, has exploded with references to someone named Harvey Weinstein for the past few weeks. What’s up? Weinstein is…
Employment Law Update for HR Managers October 2017
By Mike O’Brien bio
Here is my periodic update prepared for interested HR professionals trying to deal with the complex American employment laws…
Don’t Crash & Burn: Why Cutting Your Quality Department’s Budget is not a Good Idea
By Jennifer Dawson, MHA, DLM (ASCP) bio
Do you think that you can improve your organization’s bottom line by reducing the budget to your quality program and cutting its staff…
Fanning the Flames
By Dan Scungio, MT (ASCP), SLS, CQA (ASQ) bio
Memorizing what actions to take in a fire situation is important, and reviewing this topic in October, National Fire Prevention Month, is both timely and…
Draft 2018 CLFS Reveals Fundamental Flaws in PAMA Reporting Exercise; Time to Take Action
By Lâle White bio
As XIFIN predicted, the PAMA reporting exercise has resulted in significant proposed laboratory fee cuts. In fact…
Here’s my latest Employment Law update prepared for many HR professionals
By Mike O’Brien bio
Lots of ADA Facility Lawsuits in Utah: Here is an interesting legal news update from my partner Mike Judd: Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires places of…
Should you be paying your staff overtime?
From – G2 Blog
It is a recurrent challenge for human resource professionals: Determining whether an employee is exempt from the overtime requirements of the…
Decoding Quality Terminology
By Jennifer Dawson, MHA, LSSBB, DLM(ASCP) bio
Quality has been defined as fitness for use, conformance to requirements, the pursuit of excellence and a product or service free of deficiencies …
Lean Six Sigma is Not Quality
By Jennifer Dawson, MHA, LSSBB, DLM(ASCP) bio
Now before the entire industry lynches me for the sacrilege of the title of this article, let me explain what I mean. I have known Lean Six Sigma skeptics and outright haters and trust me…
By the Numbers: Lab Injury and Exposure Data
By Dan Scungio, MT (ASCP), SLS, CQA (ASQ) bio
Finding information about the number of Laboratory Acquired Infections (LAIs) and other laboratory injuries in the United States is difficult…
Employment Law Update for August 2017
By Mike O’Brien bio
Here is my periodic update prepared for interested HR professionals trying to deal with the complex American employment laws…
Why Your Best Talent is Leaving and Four Ways to Win Them Back
By William A. Schiemann, Ph.D bio
Most leaders of companies today recognize the importance of having engaged people at work. Yet research from the Metrus Institute, Gallup, and others say that…
Employment Law Update for HR Managers
By Mike O’Brien bio
This is my periodic update prepared for interested HR professionals trying to deal with the complex American employment laws…
Medical Necessity Requirement Bites Anatomic Pathologists
By Robert Mazer bio
The DOJ has announced two separate settlements involving claims for allegedly unnecessary special stains…
Getting a new lab space? Design it for safety now and save thousands later
By Dan Scungio, MT (ASCP), SLS, CQA (ASQ) bio
Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a laboratory manager who worked in a hospital that was designing a new stand-alone emergency department building which would include a…
5 ways to end generational stereotyping in your lab
By Dr. William A. Schiemann bio
These days, the Millennial Generation is hyped, perhaps even more than Baby Boomers were hyped in the 1950s and 1960s. As I meet with executives around the globe, there is widespread confusion and…
Do No Harm: Diagnostic Errors and the Lab
By Jennifer (McMahon) Dawson, MHA, DLM (ASCP) bio
“Do no harm” is the mantra that health care providers live by. Doctors, nurses and laboratory professionals alike enter into the business of health care because they are motivated to…
Watch Out for Resume Fraud
By Lynne Curry, Ph.D bio
You know that new laboratory assistant you just hired—the one with the terrific resume and reference? It turns out she never worked for the employers named on the resume or…
Making Laboratory Safety as Simple as ABC
By Dan Scungio, MT (ASCP), SLS, CQA (ASQ) bio
When it comes to safety in the laboratory, there are several rules, regulations, and guidelines to keep track of from multiple organizations. If your responsibilities for lab safety are…
Role of Healthcare AI in the Lab: Today & Tomorrow
By Jason Bhan, MD, Co-Founder, Chief Medical Officer at Prognos bio
Laboratories have traditionally directed their information technology (IT) focus to support their main business of testing. The IT infrastructure they have invested in allows them to…
The New Overtime Rules are Put on Hold. What Does That Mean for You?
By Mike O’Brien bio
As most of you know by now, I’m sure, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) has finalized a new Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) rule that, among other things, raises the minimum salary threshold required to qualify for…
