PRESS RELEASE: Innovative Anatomic Pathology Groups Use New Strategies to Increase Revenue and Maximize Pathologists’ Income Despite Unprecedented Price Cuts, Exclusionary Narrow Networks and Tougher Payer Audits

PRESS RELEASE

THE DARK REPORT
21806 Briarcliff Dr.
Spicewood, Texas 78669
512-264-7103 o
512-264-0969 f

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Chris Garcia
chris@darkreport.com

AUSTIN, Texas (January 16, 2017) It is the worst financial environment for the anatomic pathology profession in decades. Across the nation, pathology groups are coping with falling revenue, rising costs, and more payer restrictions that reduce collections. Pathologists are watching their incomes get squeezed as their private group practices struggle to maintain financial solvency.

Additionally, in just 11 months, at the start of 2018 pathology groups will take another double hit to revenue and profits. The first hit will come during 2018 from the Medicare Part B fee cuts that CMS expects to implement, based on the PAMA private payer market price data that certain labs have begun to submit to CMS. The second hit will come as Medicare officials distribute bonuses and penalties to pathologists based on their 2018 performance under the new Merit Incentive Payment System (MIPS) mandated by the MACRA statute.

“Traditionally, most pathology groups have been slow to act in response to various changes to Medicare prices and the more restrictive managed care contracts they negotiate with private payers,” stated Robert L. Michel, Editor-In-Chief of The Dark Report. “These groups have experienced sharp reductions in revenue that have forced them to then pay less compensation to their pathologists. Some have even been forced to merge, go out of business, or become employees of the hospitals they’ve served for years.”

Recognizing that the next wave of price cuts, restrictive payer policies, and less fee-for-service reimbursement will do even more financial damage to many of the nation’s private pathology group practices, The Dark Report and DarkDaily are offering a timely new webinar entitled, “Boosting Revenue and Pathologist Income During 2017 with Creative Strategies for Pricing, Pathology Productivity, and Market Share Growth,” taking place on Wednesday, January 25, at 1 pm EST. During this webinar, two pathology experts will discuss five strategic clinical and business initiatives that pathology groups can implement to protect and increase revenue, maximize pathologist income, and improve the financial sustainability of their practices.

• Insights will be offered into the regional market dynamics for anatomic pathology services in different parts of the United States.
• Listeners will learn why it is essential that pathology groups revise their prices to gain competitive advantage, and how they can use this price transparency to win new managed care contracts and expand market share.
• Why contract billing services fail to collect all the money due a pathology group will be explained; participants will learn how to create a “billing scorecard” that allows them to engage their billing service in ways that result in a higher percentage of collections and more net revenue to the group.
• The findings of a national survey of pathologist productivity will be presented, yielding a better understanding of how a group can improve the performance of its pathologists and gain methods that, when a pathologist retires, allow a better determination of the options of either hiring or having remaining pathologists pick up case volume.
• How-to’s regarding the development of a market strategy that increases specimen volume, generates new revenue, and expands market share.

For more information about “Boosting Revenue and Pathologist Income During 2017 with Creative Strategies for Pricing, Pathology Productivity, and Market Share Growth.” and to view webinar details, including presenter biographies and pricing, click here. You may also contact Chris Garcia at 512-264-7103.

About THE DARK REPORT

Established in 1995, THE DARK REPORT is the leading source of exclusive business intelligence for laboratory CEOs, COOs, CFOs, Pathologists and Senior industry executives. It is widely read by leaders in laboratory medicine and diagnostics. The Dark Report produces the famous Executive War College on Laboratory and Pathology Management every spring, which showcases innovations by the nation’s and globe’s leading laboratory organizations. Dark Daily is an Internet-based e-briefing intelligence service, read worldwide by thought leaders in laboratory and pathology management. Other well-known conferences conducted by THE DARK REPORT are Lab Quality Confab (on the use of Lean and Six Sigma methods in labs and hospitals) and Molecular Summit (on the integration of in vivo and in vitro diagnostics). THE DARK REPORT co-produces Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine annually in the United Kingdom; Executive Edge bi-annually in Canada; and The Business of Pathology bi-annually in Australia.