To keep or divest your system clinical laboratory: Gain the day, but lose tomorrow? The unintended consequences of outsourcing the Lab

Strong dynamics in the laboratory industry and U.S. health care writ large place in-system laboratories at risk for divestment and monetization. The temptation to divest is great for corporate leadership: revenue compression from PAMA and other sources threatens both fee-for-service laboratory revenue and the monetizable value of the clinical laboratory. Substantive one-time payments from buyers are attractive one-time solutions for competing cash-flow needs.

Integrated system laboratories and independent laboratories that serve integrated health systems can successfully establish and hold their valued positions, serving as exemplars for peers. However, each clinical laboratory faces its own institutional challenges.

This “fireside chat” will bring two nationally recognized pathologists together to examine both the challenges facing the non-profit sector of the laboratory industry, and strategies for establishing strong positions for both laboratory preservation and growth.

Learning Objectives:

1. To understand the dynamics in U.S. healthcare that increasingly undermine the non-profit sector of the laboratory industry.

2. To gain knowledge of strategies for establishing strong institutional value beyond the profit-and-loss statement of commoditized laboratory testing.

3. To examine potential mechanics of establishing successful business models for laboratory funds flow under the U.S. value-based payment system.