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May 2025
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It was great seeing so many laboratorians, colleagues, and ADSRCM clients at the Executive War College last month in New Orleans. Everyone always looks forward to EWC’s conferences, and this one certainly didn’t disappoint. Many of the presentations involved revenue cycle management (RCM) and how important it is to capture every maximized dollar for every test as much as possible.
A reminder that we can help you with that!
For this month’s message, CMS and HHS have created a request for information (RFI) on healthcare technology. This seems to be a good thing, as CMS and HHS seek guidance from the public based on responses to the RFI.
The hope is that responses will help guide both agencies to more fully understand the needs of patients and providers (laboratories).
RFI respondents could include laboratorians/laboratory stakeholders, providers, patients, caregivers, HIEs, and other healthcare-related entities or others involved in healthcare.
Click here to see the RFI, which you can complete if you’re so inclined.
We hope you enjoy the rest of the read!
The good news is that according to the CDC, drug overdoses declined by about 27% in 2024. The CDC attributes this very much to public health interventions.
The bad news is that drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans who are 18-44 years old. It’s hoped or perhaps expected that continued funding to support prevention programs will continue to diminish the drug overdose numbers.
Click here for the CDC report.
That’s the gist of the message in a letter the Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) sent to HHS. And you can be sure there was plenty of postage on it.
ADLM’s opinion, and perhaps yours as well, is that by disbanding CLIAC, the quality of laboratory tests could be degraded and that it could cause delays in diagnoses and treatments.
Click here for the ADLM letter and here for their press release.
While the breach target in this case is an imaging group, the story's message applies equally to laboratories and any other healthcare entity.
As investigated by HHS and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), it was determined that the imaging group never performed a HIPAA risk assessment. Sure enough, over 20,000 patients’ images were breached. Making matters worse, the imaging center didn’t notify those patients in a timely manner.
The imaging center settled the case with HHS, paying a $5,000 fine and then presenting them (HHS) with an action plan to avoid any similar incidents in the future. If you think $5,000 isn’t too bad, another healthcare network’s HIPAA breach cost them $600,000. Both are recent cases.
The message to you as a laboratorian is to ensure you perform an internal HIPAA risk assessment as needed or as suggested by your HIPAA expertise resource and that you have a plan should a breach happen.
In addition to ensuring your laboratory is “locked down” as tightly as possible for HIPAA, ensure that any cloud-based vendors with whom you work are equally as HIPAA compliant and secure. You never want to be the subject of a similar HHS press release!
Click here for the imaging center’s HHS press release and here for the release on the healthcare network.
(ADSRCM and ADS are HIPAA-compliant. Our servers are hosted by Equinix®, a SOC 1 and SOC 2-certified global leader in cloud hosting. To date [since 1977], we’ve never had a breach or an intrusion.)
Thanks to Regeneron and a $256 million offer, it appears 23andMe will live on. It’s an unconfirmed rumor that the company’s name will change to 256,000,000andMe. Regeneron said it plans to continue the company as a personal genomic service.
Regeneron said it will prioritize security, privacy, and the ethical use of 23andMe’s clients’ data.
OB/GYN practices may be ruminating on this, but the reality is that thanks to Teal Health®, women will be able to collect their own Pap smear samples without having to visit a physician’s office, eliminating what is traditionally an uncomfortable appointment.
Getting the device will require a prescription. Teal has that covered as well with their telehealth providers, who’ll (1) do a virtual consult to ensure the patient is approved for self-collection, (2) prescribe the kit, and (3) review the results as performed by the certified laboratory to which the patient mailed the sample.
The benefits to patients who are approved to do self-collections are obvious. Other “winners” are the telehealth providers and the certified laboratories to which samples are mailed.
You might want to see how to become a certified laboratory for Teal’s self-collection samples.
June, with new articles and items of interest for laboratories!
With outsourced services from ADSRCM, you can maximize your laboratory's revenue and productivity. If you prefer in-laboratory automation, the MedicsPremier platform from ADS can be deployed! Contact us at 844-599-6881 or email rcminfo@adsc.com for more information, and about the ADSRCM guarantee to increase your revenue in 90 days.
We strive to provide our newsletters with news of the current month, not the previous month. Feedback or comments on our newsletters/content are greatly appreciated. Please opine by emailing marc.klar@adsc.com or by calling me at 973-931-7516. We’d love to hear from you!
Marc E. Klar, Vice President, Marketing, ADSRCM.
Disclaimer: Articles and content about governmental information, such as CMS, Medicare, and Medicaid, are presented according to our best understanding. Please visit www.cms.gov if clarifications are needed. We are not responsible for typographical errors or changes that may have occurred after this newsletter was produced. Visit www.adsc.com to view our most up-to-date information. We don’t endorse any companies or organizations mentioned in our newsletters; you are encouraged to do research and due diligence on any that might interest you.
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Disclaimer: Articles and content about governmental information, such as CMS, Medicare, and Medicaid, are presented according to our best understanding. Please visit www.cms.gov if clarifications are needed. We are not responsible for typographical errors or changes that may have occurred after this newsletter was produced. We don’t endorse any companies or organizations mentioned in our newsletters; you are encouraged to do research and due diligence on any that might interest you.
