Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The DOJ has charged a publicly traded Silicon Valley med tech firm and its CEO with touting a sham finger stick blood test to defraud payors and rip off … [Read more...]
Diagnostic Deals
Labs, Universities and Even Computer Companies Target Point-of-Care COVID-19 Test Development
April 1, 2020
The imperative to create and provide tests capable of detecting the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 coronavirus continues to fuel strategic deal making. SARS-CoV-2 point-of-care tests was the … [Read more...]
DIAGNOSTIC DEALS
Diagnostic Deals: Urgent Need for Coronavirus Diagnostics Fuels Strategic Collaboration
March 1, 2020
Not surprisingly, teaming up for development and commercialization of coronavirus (COVID-19) detection and vaccination products was a major theme of strategic alliance making during the period. … [Read more...]
DIAGNOSTIC DEALS
Diagnostic Deals: Lab Corp & Quest to Continue Targeting Small and Independent Labs for Acquisition
January 31, 2020
PAMA price cuts were supposed to drive consolidation in the lab market. The expectation was that price pressures would make it impossible for smaller labs to remain independent, rendering them juicy … [Read more...]
FALSE CLAIMS
Federal Court Dismisses Whistleblowers’ Urine Drug Test False Billing Claim
January 2, 2020
Case: Whistleblowers accused a national lab company of falsely billing Medicare and Medicaid for high complexity quantitative urine drug tests under CPT code G0431 at up to $476 per test. According to … [Read more...]
COMPLIANCE
Sales & Marketing: The Perils of Restructuring Sales Commissions for EKRA
January 2, 2020
For many years, it was fairly common practice for labs to pay their sales representatives variable compensation based on the volume and value of the tests they generated. But those arrangements became … [Read more...]
DIAGNOSTIC DEALS
Diagnostic Deals: Illumina/PacBio Merger Derails & Qiagen Takes Itself Out of Play
December 31, 2019
As 2019 came to a close, the biggest story in DX deal making was the pair of anticipated M&A deals that suddenly seem unlikely to happen. As a result, two major genetic testing companies will … [Read more...]
DIAGNOSTIC DEALS
Diagnostic Deals: The Fate of Illumina-PacBio Merger Hangs in the Balance
November 30, 2019
Will they or won’t they? The suspense continues over whether Illumina’s proposed rescue of Pacific Biosciences will actually close. The $1.2 billion cash merger, which was originally expected to close … [Read more...]
Marketing Pitfalls to Avoid: Deceptive Advertising—the Other Kind of “False Claims”
November 28, 2019
We all know that marketing activity is a breeding ground for potential lab liability. But while most labs are sensitive to the risks posed by the Antikickback Statute, Stark Law and False Claims Act, … [Read more...]
