Laboratory Business Insights: October 2026

Before AMP 2026: What Questions Should Laboratory Leaders Be Asking?

This November, ADS is heading to Seattle for AMP 2026, and I have been spending time looking through the program and thinking about the conversations I want to have while I am there.

ADS will be at Booth #1901, and if you are attending, I hope you will stop by.

 

Looking at this year's AMP program, one thing is clear. The laboratory world is moving quickly.

 

Artificial intelligence is becoming more specific to laboratory medicine. NGS continues to evolve. Biomarker testing is playing an increasingly important role in precision medicine. Molecular and cytogenomic methodologies continue advancing. Informatics is changing how laboratory data is analyzed and used.

 

There is a lot to be excited about.

 

But before we get to Seattle, I think there is another conversation worth having:

 

As the science becomes more sophisticated, what questions should laboratory leaders be asking about the business of running the laboratory?

 

Here are the questions I am taking to AMP.

 

1. Where Is AI Actually Delivering Value in the Laboratory?

AI will be a significant part of the conversation at AMP.

 

The interesting question is no longer whether AI will affect laboratory medicine. The better question is where it is producing meaningful results.

 

There are clinical and diagnostic applications, but I am equally interested in what AI and automation can do behind the scenes.

 

Revenue cycle teams still spend tremendous amounts of time checking payer responses, tracking claims, researching denials, reconciling payments, following A/R and preparing reports.

 

Can technology reduce that administrative burden? Can it help identify patterns humans might otherwise miss? Can it help staff concentrate on the accounts that actually require their expertise?

 

The goal is not replacing good people. It is giving good people better tools.

 

2. As NGS Advances, Can the Revenue Cycle Keep Up?

NGS continues to create extraordinary possibilities for diagnosis and precision medicine.

 

But sophisticated testing can also create sophisticated reimbursement workflows.

 

Coverage requirements, eligibility, prior authorization, medical necessity, documentation, coding, payer specific requirements, claim edits and denials can all stand between a completed test and collected revenue.

 

That raises an important question for laboratories expanding molecular and NGS testing:

 

Are we thinking about reimbursement early enough?

 

The earlier a laboratory can identify potential financial issues, the better opportunity it may have to prevent avoidable downstream problems.

 

 

3. Are We Fixing Denials or Preventing Them?

Every laboratory has denials.

 

But if your team is continually fixing the same denial for the same reason, that denial is telling you something.

 

Maybe the problem started with eligibility. Maybe it was authorization. Maybe information was missing. Maybe there is a payer specific requirement. Maybe information did not move correctly between systems.

 

A denial should not simply become another claim in a work queue. It should become information.

 

The goal should not be to become exceptionally efficient at fixing the same problems over and over. The goal should be to prevent as many of them as possible.

 

4. Are Our Systems Actually Talking to Each Other?

When the LIS or LIMS and billing operation do not communicate efficiently, people often become the connection.

 

Someone reenters information. Someone searches for missing data. Someone reconciles records. Someone moves between systems. Someone creates another spreadsheet.

 

Every manual step takes time and creates another opportunity for something to go wrong.

 

As testing becomes more sophisticated, connectivity between laboratory operations and the revenue cycle becomes increasingly important.

 

ADS and ADSRCM can integrate with virtually any LIS or LIMS, helping information move more efficiently between laboratory operations and billing.

 

Talk With ADS About Laboratory Billing & RCM →

 

5. Do We Really Know Which Tests and Payers Are Performing Financially?

• What are you actually collecting by payer?
• Which tests generate the most denials?
• Which payers take the longest to reimburse you?
• How much A/R is sitting beyond 90 days?
• Where are authorization problems originating?
• How quickly does a clean claim become cash?

 

A laboratory can perform extraordinary science and still struggle financially if leadership does not have visibility into what happens after testing.

 

Your revenue cycle data should help explain the business, not simply report what was collected last month.

 

6. Are We Ready for the 2027 Reimbursement Environment?

The 2026 PAMA reporting period is behind us. Now the focus begins shifting toward 2027.

 

That makes this a good time to understand your own financial baseline.

 

Before January, know your numbers. Know your denials. Know your A/R. Know your payer performance. Know where revenue is being delayed. And know whether your technology is giving your team the visibility it needs.

 

Request a Laboratory Revenue Review →

 

Now I Want to Hear Your Questions

Those are some of the questions I am taking to AMP.

 

But I am even more interested in yours.

 

If you are attending AMP 2026, bring us the problem your team keeps talking about.

• Bring the denial you keep seeing.
• Bring the payer that keeps slowing you down.
• Bring the test that is becoming harder to get reimbursed.
• Bring your prior authorization challenge.
• Bring your LIS or LIMS question.

 

Or simply stop by and tell us what you are seeing inside your laboratory.

 

The best information at a conference does not always come from the presentation screen. Sometimes it comes from another laboratory professional saying, "Here is what we are dealing with every day."

 

Those are the conversations I want to have in Seattle.

 

 

Until Next Month

Next month, we will continue with Part Two of this series and look at the 2027 laboratory billing outlook, including reimbursement, molecular and NGS billing, prior authorization, denial prevention, AI, automation and revenue cycle visibility.

 

See you in Seattle.

 

Jim O'Neill
Laboratory Services Business Development Manager
Advanced Data Systems Corporation

 

Explore ADS Laboratory Billing Software & RCM →

 

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