Dx Deals: Could Health Coaching Be a New Opportunity for Labs?
Quest Diagnostics will find out as it launches a new health coaching business that relies on lab testing, via its Pack Health subsidiary

One of the largest laboratory companies in the United States has launched a new business focused on an unusual path: health coaching of individual patients.
Quest Diagnostics has begun offering health coaching packages beginning at $225 apiece through its Pack Health subsidiary. Customers will be paired with health advisers who provide support and resources.1
The program’s health coaching focuses on a few chronic or serious health conditions, including kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and high cholesterol. Consumers also have the choice of having a program customized for them based on the results of their laboratory tests.
A growing interest in health coaching
“As many as 60 percent of Americans say they want health coaching, yet the majority have never had the service offered to them by a healthcare provider or employer,” said Quest senior vice president and general manager of Quest’s consumer division Richard Adams in a statement. “Changing behavior is often critical to preventing chronic diseases and achieving better health.”1
The health advisers are employees of Pack Health—which Quest acquired in 2022 and has since expanded to provide specialty programs to health plans and employer groups to help improve the health of their enrollees.2 All the advisers have national certifications as health and wellness coaches.
Health coaching: an emerging business opportunity for labs?
Quest spokespersons did not respond to questions about the initial reception and uptake of the health coaching services and whether the services are expected to boost test volumes.
“Monitoring health insights through lab testing can help maximize the benefits of health coaching and stay on track with a patient’s goals,” said Quest spokesperson Jennifer Petrella in an email.
Though it remains to be seen how successful Quest’s venture will be, for lab leaders searching for new revenue streams, health coaching plans may present a business opportunity for lab testing services.
Quanterix acquires dye encapsulating bead firm EMISSION for $20 million
Quanterix Corp. is acquiring a Texas-based firm that specializes in the manufacture of dye-encapsulating magnetic beads.
Quanterix will pay $20 million to acquire EMISSION iNC. The terms include an upfront $10 million cash payment, with an additional $10 million to be paid upon the completion of “certain technical milestones,” according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.3 Additional performance-based payouts totaling $50 million could be made through 2029 depending on EMISSION’s future performance.
The transaction closed the week of January 9, according to a Quanterix spokesperson, who describes the deal as a “strategic move to bring in-house EMISSION’s novel manufacturing capabilities.”
EMISSION manufactures and distributes dye-encapsulating magnetic beads that are designed for low and mid-complexity tests. It also offers a platform for reading its beads.4 Such beads are used in lab testing to bind to targets for testing, with their magnetic properties useful in separating the target from the rest of the test sample. Such separations can occur much more quickly and efficiently than by using a centrifuge.
Quanterix’s focus is on platforms that provide biomarker detection and analysis. It offers three such platforms to the laboratory community that can perform dozens of assays. EMISSION’s beads are a core component of Quanterix’s platforms, which are sold under the Simoa® brand name, according to a company spokesperson.
The spokesperson indicated that operations at EMISSION’s headquarters outside of Austin, Texas would continue uninterrupted and that no layoffs are planned.
Labcorp makes more acquisitions, strategic alignments
Labcorp continues an aggressive acquisition path, aligning with medical practices with sizable laboratory operations and finalizing the acquisition of another healthcare system outreach business.
The Burlington, NC,-based Labcorp announced it has entered into a strategic agreement with Graves Gilbert Clinic in Bowling Green, KY, to manage its on-site laboratories.5
The Graves Gilbert labs perform more than 2 million tests annually, according to a spokesperson with the organization. There are no plans to change Graves Gilbert branding on its laboratory operations, officials with both organizations said.
“By combining our expertise, we look forward to enhancing laboratory services to improve health outcomes for the people of south-central Kentucky,” said Amy Rhine-Pallas, a Labcorp senior vice president who oversees its north central division operations, in a statement.5
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Labcorp declined to say whether it was purchasing the laboratory outright. A Labcorp spokesperson says the strategic agreement would be implemented starting this spring.
Both companies have been mum on what Labcorp’s participation would bring to the operation, other than to note that the agreement will help Graves Gilbert’s lab operations to expand over the longer term.
Altogether, Graves Gilbert’s laboratory operations have more than 90 employees. An undisclosed number will become Labcorp employees, according to a Labcorp spokesperson.
Other recent Labcorp deals
In addition to the Graves Gilbert transaction, Labcorp also announced the acquisition of the women’s health testing business of MAWD Pathology Group in Lenexa, KS. Terms of that transaction were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2025.6
“We are excited about how our agreement with Labcorp, whose team shares our commitment to improving the health of our communities through best-in-class laboratory services, will advance the highest level of pathology and laboratory care for patients in the region,” said MAWD CEO Samuel Caughron, MD, in a statement.6
MAWD has 56 physicians and osteopaths in its practice. It is one of the biggest pathology practices in the greater Kansas City area, diagnosing as many as half of the cancer cases in the region as recently as 2020.7 MAWD itself has grown in recent years through the acquisition of nearby pathology practices.
In yet another transaction, Labcorp announced that it had closed its pending acquisition of the outreach business of Johnson City, TN,-based Ballad Health, a deal that was first announced last September. Labcorp said that Ballad would continue to operate its own inpatient and emergency department laboratories.8
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