Recent legal developments should give laboratories new cause to tightly monitor efforts to win physician referrals, attorney Jane Pine Wood said at last month’s Executive War College meeting.

In April, the federal government reached a settlement with cardiovascular-disease testing labs Health Diagnostic Laboratory and Singulex to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by paying doctors in exchange for patient referrals. The U.S. Justice Department also alleged the companies billed Medicare and Medicaid for medically unnecessary testing. HDL agreed to pay $47 million to settle the matter, while Singulex will pay $1.5 million.

My latest contribution for “Put It on the Board.” Read the whole shebang.

Sharon Cox, MT(ASCP)SM, has a passion for the correct count.

Charged with managing the laboratory supply inventory as core lab supervisor at Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa, Okla., she knows the right tally matters. Get it wrong and the lab can wind up with too little of what is needed. That can mean big overnight shipping charges when things run out unexpectedly. To avoid that outcome, the lab may order more supply than necessary, which leads to a different kind of problem.

“All those reagents you have sitting in the refrigerator—that’s just wasted money sitting there that could be better used by the health system,” Cox said last month during a talk at the Executive War College in New Orleans.

My feature article in the June edition of CAP TODAY. Read the whole shebang.