#Advanced molecular diagnostics professional#

For more detailed information on the types of pathology services and compensation structures, please reference HealthCare Appraisers guide, Pathology: A Comprehensive Guide to Pathology Arrangements.

#Advanced molecular diagnostics professional#

Services provided by pathologists to these labs can vary, such as medical director services, administrative services, professional services, and call coverage services. Many valuation items our firm has encountered in relation to clinical labs relate to provider compensation.

Thus, the effects of COVID-19 on the operations of a laboratory can vary greatly depending on the services offered by each specific lab. Anatomic labs may have seen their specimen volumes decline during 2020 as patients avoid office visits. While COVID-19 tests have been a boon for those clinical labs offering these services, financial performance may have deteriorated for labs not offering those services. Clinical laboratories have benefited from CMS increasing reimbursement for facilities using high throughput technology for COVID-19 testing. Quest Diagnostics (Quest) also posted a strong third quarter driven by COVID-19 testing. The increase of 31.5 percent was driven by revenue growth in COVID-19 testing of 32.6 percent, partially offset by a reduction in its organic base business of 1.1 percent. For example, in its third quarter earnings call, Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp) reported revenue growth of 33 percent year-over-year in the quarter, 31.5 percent of which was due to organic revenue growth.

However, while laboratory base business operations may have decreased during 2020 as a result of fewer individuals receiving routine preventative care and elective procedures, many clinical laboratories reported this has been offset by increases in COVID-19 testing. While laboratories vary in the scope and types of pathology services provided, many laboratories are clinical or anatomic focused, and further, are focused on one of the sub-specialized clinical or anatomic areas.ĬURRENT EVENTS AFFECTING OPERATIONS AND VALUATIONS OF LABORATORIESĬOVID-19 has had an impact on all areas of the healthcare industry, including laboratories. Anatomic pathology primarily consists of tissue evaluation, while clinical pathology covers most of laboratory medicine – including routine tests such as glucose and sodium, up to molecular tests for cancer markers and genome sequencing.īoth clinical pathology and anatomic pathology are further classified into numerous sub-specialties. The field contains two main divisions: anatomic and clinical pathology. Pathology is a medical specialty that involves the laboratory examination of body tissue for diagnostic or forensic purposes. In this article we provide background information on labs, timely factors affecting lab operations, transaction activity in the lab space, valuation considerations for labs, and how COVID-19 is impacting lab operations. In addition to COVID-19, the industry is dealing with reimbursement pressures as a result of changes in governmental reimbursement rates. Contact us for more details.As with all sectors of healthcare, the lab industry has been dramatically impacted by COVID-19. Turn Around Time: In comparison with standard traditional culture methods, molecular methodologies usually offer better turn around times from receipt to result reporting.Īpplication: broader application can be found with molecular methodologies such as infectious diseases, genetic testing, forensics, drug resistance, and tumor marker detection and monitoring. Specificity: Molecular methods minimize false positive test results by targeting the specific molecule of interest. Sensitivity: Amplification methodologies are particularly useful in increasing the sensitivity of a methodology and useful in the identification of target molecules of interest that are only present in low concentrations. Molecular methodologies offer numerous advantages to the clinical laboratory. Developments in technology have also resulted in more user-friendly testing platforms that are automated, have lower risks for contamination and have the ability to deliver faster results. These tools now have the potential to replace many conventional microbiology laboratory assays. The rapid improvement in workflow and turnaround time for most molecular testing methods has provided promising results. The field of molecular diagnostics, which uses biological analysis to detect specific sequences in DNA or RNA that might be associated with disease, is growing rapidly.