DARK Daily: Innovative Anatomic Pathology Groups Use New Strategies to Increase Revenue and Maximize Pathologists’ Income Despite Unprecedented Price…

DARK Daily: 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

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- 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 private group practices struggle to maintain financial solvency.

At the start of 2018, pathology groups will take another double hit to revenue and profits. The first hit will come from Medicare Part B fee cuts that CMS expects to implement, based on PAMA private payer market price data that certain labs have submitted to CMS. The second 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 respond to 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, forcing 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 private pathology group practices, The Dark Report is offering a new webinar, "Boosting Revenue and Pathologist Income During 2017 with Creative Strategies for Pricing, Pathology Productivity, and Market Share Growth," on Wednesday, January 25, at 1 pm EST. During this webinar, two pathology experts will discuss strategic clinical and business initiatives 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 U.S.

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," allowing them to engage their billing service in ways that result in a higher percentage of collections and more net revenue to the group.

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 this webinar, including presenter biographies and pricing, click here. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170119005124/en/

Keywords for this news article include: Medicare, Pathology, Dark Daily, Managed Care, Health Policy.

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