Competitive Bid Repeal Bill Introduced as CMS Moves On

Will Demo Drive Smaller Labs Out of the Market?

By Julie McDowell

A last minute bill introduced in the House in early August could squash CMS’s 3-year Competitive Bidding Demonstration Project for lab testing, but in the mean time laboratorians are worried about the potential impact on reimbursement—both in the short and long term.

Thyroid Disorders in Pregnancy

New Guidelines Recommend Against Universal Screening, Suggest a New TSH Reference Limit

By Deborah Levenson

Guidelines from The Endocrine Society that do not recommend universal thyroid disease screening for pregnant women fail to settle the debate over the issue, but do suggest that labs running thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) tests for pregnant women use a new upper limit for the TSH reference range.

Autoverification of Test Results

How to Avoid Mistakes and Improve Efficiency in Your Lab

By Judith Johnson MT(ASCP)SH, and Deborah Stelmach MT(ASCP), MS

Studies show that 70–75% of results uploaded from a lab instrument require no technologist intervention and can be automatically forwarded to patient files. The benefits are error reduction, decreased labor costs associated with manual result reviews, faster result turnaround time, and improved data access.