Author: hc1

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May 27, 2025

This year’s inaugural hc1 Healthcare Innovation Summit was nothing short of extraordinary. Held alongside the iconic Indianapolis 500, the event brought together healthcare leaders, innovators, and partners for two days of high-performance insights, networking, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

A Unique Blend of Business and Racing

The hc1 Healthcare Innovation Summit was designed to inspire and empower healthcare executives to drive high-performance results in their organizations. By tying the event to the high-speed world of IndyCar racing, we created a unique environment where attendees could explore parallels between high-performance racing and high-performance healthcare.

From engaging keynote sessions to exclusive behind-the-scenes access at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Summit offered a perfect mix of education, networking, and entertainment.

Key Highlights from the Healthcare Innovation Summit

Inspiring Keynotes and Panels:

Industry leaders shared actionable insights on topics like healthcare innovation, operational efficiency, and patient-centered care. These sessions sparked meaningful discussions and left attendees with practical strategies to implement in their organizations.

Exclusive Trackside Experiences:

Attendees enjoyed private access to the Gasoline Alley Suites, overlooking the iconic track. They also had the chance to meet driver Jack Harvey, tour the garage area, and immerse themselves in the high-energy atmosphere of the Indy 500.

Networking and Collaboration:

The Healthcare Innovation Summit fostered valuable connections. Whether during interactive sessions, meals, or trackside activities, attendees had ample opportunities to exchange ideas and build relationships.

High-Performance Healthcare Messaging:

The Summit reinforced hc1’s commitment to empowering healthcare organizations with innovative solutions. Through expert thought leadership, we showcased how high-performance principles can transform healthcare delivery.

Keeping the Momentum Going

The hc1 Healthcare Innovation Summit was more than just an event – it was a catalyst for change. As we reflect on the incredible moments we shared, we’re excited to keep the momentum going.

We’re already planning next year’s Summit, and we can’t wait to build on the success of this year’s inaugural event. Sign up here to stay up-to-date on the 2026 hc1 Healthcare Innovation Summit, and thank you to everyone who made this event an unforgettable experience.

Together, let’s continue driving high-performance results in healthcare!

 

By Kelly Lucas
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May 20, 2025

Differentiating hc1 from global management consulting firms is essential – especially when a healthcare institution has already worked with one of these large firms on a laboratory consulting project and is seeking fresh, tangible value. Here’s a clear comparison that highlights our unique advantages.

1. Healthcare Specialization vs. General Strategy

  • hc1: 100% focused on healthcare operations, especially in clinical lab services, pathology, blood management, and clinical transformation.
  • Large Firms: Known for high-level strategic consulting across industries; healthcare is one vertical among many.
  • ✅ Why it matters: hc1 brings depth over breadth – we speak the same clinical language, understand regulatory pressures, and move faster on implementation by already having the subject matter expertise.

2. Implementation-Driven vs. Strategy-Only

  • hc1: We stay on the ground to execute the strategy—process redesign, change management, technology integration, benchmarking, and more.
  • Large Firms: Primarily focus on strategic frameworks and recommendations, often leaving execution to the client or third-party implementers.
  • ✅ Why it matters: hc1 brings the team, tools, and training needed to deliver change – not just advise it.

3. Clinical and Operational Alignment

  • hc1: Deep expertise in areas like lab operations, blood utilization, Epic Beaker transitions, digital pathology, and clinical efficiency.
  • Large Firms: Tend to operate at the enterprise or financial level, with less emphasis on day-to-day clinical workflows.
  • ✅ Why it matters: hc1 bridges the gap between finance, operations, and frontline clinicians – ensuring sustainable solutions.

4. Faster ROI with Focused Deliverables

  • hc1: Projects are targeted and outcomes-driven, often producing ROI in 3–6 months through lab cost savings, staffing optimization, or improved throughput.
  • Large Firms: Multi-million dollar engagements that may take months just to assess and define strategy, especially in large institutions.
  • ✅ Why it matters: hc1’s speed, flexibility, and clinical precision deliver value faster, with less institutional fatigue.

5. Transparent Collaboration vs. Executive-Focused Approach

  • hc1: Works side-by-side with clinical and operational teams, building internal capabilities and buy-in at every level.
  • Large Firms: Often work primarily with executive leadership, which can create a disconnect between strategy and frontline execution.
  • ✅ Why it matters: hc1 builds organizational alignment and lasting cultural change – not just executive slide decks.

6. Clinical Lab & Pathology Expertise

  • hc1: Recognized leader in lab transformation, digital pathology, PBM, and Epic Beaker transitions – core areas of interest.
  • Large Firms: May engage lab experts for specific projects but lack the long-term lab infrastructure and focus.
  • ✅ Why it matters: hc1 isn’t learning your lab on the job – we’ve optimized dozens like it through laboratory consulting projects.

Bonus: We Complement Management Consulting Firms’ Work

If a large firm already set the strategic direction, hc1 can step in to operationalize and sustain it – making us partners, not replacements.

 

By helping lab leaders overcome complex financial, staffing, and supply chain challenges through comprehensive laboratory consulting services, hc1 enables healthcare organizations to unlock their labs’ full potential. To learn more about our suite of Operational Excellence solutions, watch our recent webinar on-demand.

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Kelly Lucas, MSM, BSMT(ASCP), is responsible for working with laboratory clients to identify opportunities that optimize operations and delivery savings against commitments. She brings over 30 years of experience in clinical laboratory operations with multi-facility healthcare clinicians and administrators to deliver high quality patient care while simultaneously meeting regulatory and business demands. Kelly strives to provide innovative and meaningful information to our clients that drive optimization of operational efficiencies and bring value to the client. She has a proven record of driving consensus among diverse stakeholders, cultivating and maintaining strong relationships. She has developed strategies for core lab optimization, consolidation/centralization, and supply chain improvements.

By Katie Benyo
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May 6, 2025

Clinical laboratories are the bedrock of healthcare, providing essential data that drives up to 70% of medical decisions. Yet, many labs today grapple with significant operational hurdles, often stemming from a lack of access to real-time, actionable data. In a recent hc1 webinar, experts Kelly Lucas, Client Engagement Executive, and Jennifer Maxwell, Executive Director, Client Success, delved into these challenges with me and discussed how health systems and lab leaders can achieve operational excellence by viewing the lab as a strategic asset.

The Data Disconnect in Lab Operations

Despite generating vast amounts of data for patient diagnostics, a significant gap exists in how effectively labs utilize data for their own operational management. A survey cited in the webinar revealed that only 12% of lab professionals have access to data analytics across all of their operations, and a mere 26% of those have access to real-time data. This lack of real-time insight hinders forward-thinking decision-making, impacting everything from process improvement and staffing to cost reduction.

“By not being able to have real time insight into data, it really puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to forward thinking – improving processes, looking at staffing, helping to reduce cost – because everything that they’re looking at is not real-time.”
–Kelly Lucas

Without immediate visibility into performance, labs are often reactive, addressing issues only after they’ve impacted turnaround time, strained resources, or incurred expenses.

Addressing Core Challenges: Workflows, Staffing, and Cost

The primary challenges facing laboratory leaders – inefficient workflows, persistent staffing shortages, and relentless cost pressures – have remained consistent over recent years. Making the best use of existing technical staff is crucial, especially in an environment where labor constraints make it challenging to keep up with varying workloads throughout the day and across different testing areas. Furthermore, controlling costs remains an everyday priority – healthcare and laboratory leaders are faced with the challenge of lowering costs across the board while still driving additional value.

Strategic Asset vs. Ancillary Service

To truly overcome these challenges and drive innovation, labs must transition from being viewed as an ancillary service to being recognized as a strategic asset within the healthcare system. This means bringing the lab to the forefront and highlighting the immense value it delivers in driving patient care and supporting the financial performance of the organization.

“Viewing the lab as a strategic asset really means that labs need to bring themselves from being an ancillary service, or a ‘nice to have,’ to really being at the forefront as an essential service. We are a ‘must have’ and we are helping drive patient care.”
–Kelly Lucas

hc1 approaches lab optimization comprehensively, focusing on both strategy and operations. Our Strategic Advisory team helps executives understand various opportunities and their complex financial implications, while our Operations Management team assists in executing those strategies. This dual focus ensures that large-picture financial goals are supported by efficient day-to-day operations.

Optimizing Supply Chain Management

Along with labor expenses, supply chain costs have become a significant area of focus for healthcare systems, having increased rapidly in recent years. Healthcare expenses are outpacing inflation, and lab expenses specifically are increasing at an even faster rate. Effective supply chain management in the lab is therefore crucial for operational and financial health.

hc1 has a team of experts dedicated to healthcare supply chain management who work to help clients save significantly on lab supply, equipment, and reference testing costs. Our team leverages lab expertise, proprietary benchmarking, skilled negotiation, and strong vendor relationships built on trust, to secure the best possible prices for clients.

The Power of a Comprehensive Platform and Expertise

hc1 offers a comprehensive solution that combines both technology and advisory services to address the multifaceted needs of the laboratory. Across the platform, several key solutions are:

  • hc1 Performance Analytics, which provides real-time visibility into volume, turnaround time, spend, and productivity
  • hc1 Service Advantage, which enables resolution of quality and service issues, along with trending data on performance
  • hc1 Workforce Optimization, which uses AI and machine learning to provide volume projections and staffing recommendations, based on historical volumes and HRIS data
  • hc1 Sendout Management, which provides a single view of all reference testing to analyze cost, volumes, and turnaround time performance

Complementing the technology is our team of experienced laboratorians who act as trusted advisors, helping clients achieve significant results.

“We can’t just focus on the technology component. It takes a combination of all three: people, process, and technology. I think it’s important to note that hc1 is not just an analytics platform, we’re not just technology, and we’re not just a group of consultants coming in to complete a project. We are a comprehensive solution that is able to deliver across all the needs of the laboratory.”
–Jennifer Maxwell

The Journey to Continued Excellence

Operational excellence in the lab is not a destination, but an ongoing journey. Labs that prioritize this journey, leveraging data and embracing change, become more efficient, effective, and better equipped to handle challenges. The future of lab operations will undoubtedly involve increased adoption of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and further innovation. By focusing on operational excellence, health systems and clinical laboratory leaders can not only improve financial performance but also enhance patient outcomes, reinforcing the lab’s critical role as the cornerstone of healthcare.

Through the effective utilization of real-time analytics and automation, labs can optimize quality and service, reduce cost, and increase efficiency – all without increasing staff workload. To learn more about hc1’s suite of Operational Excellence solutions, watch our recent webinar on-demand.

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Katie Benyo has almost twenty years of experience in healthcare and performance improvement. As Vice President of hc1’s Lab Operational Excellence pillar, she assumes an executive leadership role focused on the Go To Market strategy for this portfolio of solutions. Prior to joining hc1 in 2016, Katie was most recently a Senior Performance Improvement Specialist for a multi-institutional healthcare system. She holds a Bachelor’s in Community Health from the University of Illinois, and a Master of Health Administration from Saint Louis University. She is a NAHQ-Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ), an ASQ-Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB), a TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer through AHRQ, and holds a Certificate in Laboratory Quality Management Systems from CLSI. A thought leader in her field, Katie has given over 90 podium presentations, webinars, guest lectures, etc. on healthcare performance improvement, and she has published nine articles on related topics.

By Sherri Ozawa
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February 13, 2025

What is Anemia?

Anemia is a condition that develops when your blood produces a lower-than-normal amount of healthy red blood cells. If you have anemia, your body does not get enough oxygen-rich blood, leading to weakness and fatigue.

The Impact of Anemia

Anemia affects one third of the world’s population, disproportionately women and children, even in developed nations. Most of these cases of anemia are caused by iron deficiency, which is widely overlooked but easily corrected.

Anemia and iron deficiency have profound effects on people’s health and wellness. Fatigue, depression, poor mental focus, and impaired performance of daily activities at home and at work are just a few of the symptoms that are often ignored or attributed to other causes.

Anemia in Mothers and Surgical Patients

The impact of anemia on women of childbearing age is even more dramatic. Iron deficient expectant mothers – which may be up to half of pregnant women – have riskier pregnancies, and the babies born to them have lifelong behavioral, neurological, academic, and even social consequences.

Additionally, 40 percent or more of elective surgery patients have anemia, leading to poorer outcomes from many types of surgery.

Improving Anemia Management Care

The good news is that anemia is a problem that can often be corrected if healthcare organizations operationalize systems to detect and treat anemia, especially in preoperative and pregnant patients. This improves clinical outcomes while also offering direct economic advantages, such as increased revenue from IV Iron treatment.

Explore how the unmatched combination of clinical expertise partnered with powerful technology solutions offered by hc1 + Accumen aid your organization in realizing the very real benefits to implementing an organized anemia management program.

 

Our patented, clinician-built anemia management software, MyBloodHealth®, automates the anemia management process to ensure individualized care is delivered. If you’re interested in learning more, contact us today for a free demonstration.

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Sherri Ozawa, MSN, RN, serves as hc1’s Director, Clinical Operations and Delivery for Comprehensive Patient Blood Management. She is a founding member and past president of the Society for the Advancement of Blood Management (SABM) and has been a leader in bloodless medicine for more than two decades. She has lectured nationally and internationally with a focus on the creation and implementation of sustainable, organized patient blood management programs. She has published numerous, peer-reviewed abstracts, posters, book chapters, and articles in the field and continues to be actively involved in research in her field. She worked extensively with regulatory agencies and other academic organizations such as the Joint Commission to analyze better practices for the delivery and creation of organized patient blood management programs.

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January 28, 2025

A clinical laboratory strategy, like that of any industry, must adapt to change. Strategic planning has to consider changes in the workforce, in technology, and in demand. As a leader in clinical laboratory strategy, see the 5 steps hc1 + Accumen suggests for increasing profitability in your lab.

1. Optimize Lab Performance

The first step in optimizing a hospital’s lab performance begins with understanding the lab’s current position. At hc1 + Accumen, we recommend benchmarking to see the entire picture which will provide insight into financials, operations, and efficiencies. Once the benchmark is conducted and assessed, the next step is to identify resources that should stay the same or change. The result of optimizing lab performance should lead to lower costs, quicker turnaround, new partnerships, or changes in resource management.

2. Leverage Strategic Technology

Technology has provided innovation, efficiency, and structure to hospital labs. When used well, technology can decrease labor costs, and increase delivery time. But what does it mean to use technology well in a hospital lab?

As technology evolves daily, it is critical to assess the needs of today and the future. hc1 + Accumen has worked with countless labs to assess how technology can facilitate efficient workflows and processes. Making strategic decisions about technology in labs can make a difference for overall performance.

3. Streamline Lab Processes

Lab processes are ever-changing. With personnel and partnerships constantly evolving, it is crucial to have standard processes that reflect efficiency and adaptability. There are several questions that one may ask regarding streamlining processes in the lab. What resources will help? What is the critical path to success? Who are the key players?

All these questions can be answered after a benchmark has been conducted and reviewed.

4. Increase Personnel Productivity

When it comes to hospital labs, our hc1 + Accumen team believes that productivity is essential for understanding lab profitability. Increasing productivity of lab technicians and other personnel can lead to more work executed in a shorter amount of time. Who wouldn’t want that?

However, this is easier said than done. For team members to be more productive, they must be equipped with the right technology, clean data, and clear communication channels.

5. Provide Quality Service

Service is at the heart of hospitals and hospital labs. Patients and practitioners are reliant on lab results being delivered in a timely fashion. It goes without saying that the quality of service can directly impact profitability. To ensure continued growth, it is important to monitor patient and team satisfaction with the service provided.

 

If you’re interested in meeting with one of our lab experts to discuss ways to increase profitability in your lab, contact us today for a free consultation.

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In Collaboration with Becker’s Healthcare.

In hospitals and health systems, patient blood management matters. Blood management affects patient outcomes and impacts healthcare organizations’ bottom lines. There are now opportunities to disrupt the status quo in blood management, with benefits for patients and provider organizations.

At a session sponsored by hc1 + Accumen at the Becker’s 10th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, BG Porter, former CEO of Accumen, facilitated a discussion on breakthrough technologies in healthcare with panelists: 

  • Jason Carney, VP/GM, comprehensive Patient Blood Management
  • Gary Catarella, VP, enterprise lab, Atrium Health
  • Michael Harris, MD, founder, MTH Health


Three key takeaways were:

1. Identifying anemia prior to surgery improves health outcomes and equity.

Patient blood management is an often overlooked opportunity to improve health outcomes. The number one reason for hospital transfusions is anemia. Anemia is an independent modifiable risk factor associated with increased morbidity and mortality, longer length of stay, readmissions and extra PT visits for surgical patients. These factors all raise the economic burden of anemia.

Addressing anemia prior to surgery improves outcomes, lowers costs and can improve health equity. “To deliver equitable health care, you need to identify and treat anemia in all patients prior to surgery, giving everyone access to optimal outcomes,” Mr. Porter said.

2. Executive leadership buy-in is key to lasting change.

Anemia is a multidisciplinary issue with a lot of moving pieces for patients and providers. Having a standard workflow is key to identifying patients with anemia prior to surgery; however, changing existing processes can be a challenge, as new blood management programs often disrupt the status quo.

Strong change management skills and leadership are critical to any new program’s success. In one example, Dr. Harris approached change at Englewood Health in New Jersey by gaining the buy-in of both executive leadership and physicians by demonstrating clear cost savings and increased margins along with better outcomes. In addition, the program introduced new revenue opportunities focused on helping patients prior to surgery and enhanced Englewood’s reputation.

Similarly, at Atrium Health, a health system with more than 40 hospitals and 38 laboratory sites, implementing hc1 + Accumen’s blood management program offers the opportunity over four years to decrease red cell transfusions by 60,000, decrease costs by $50 million and improve revenues by $14 million.

The project just kicked off this year, but to drive executive physician support, rather than emphasize the cost benefits, Mr. Catarella used data and case studies to explain the value proposition and drive adoption.

“Your doctors want to do the right thing for their patients and they want to be better than their neighbors and ultimately drive growth in their hospitals,” Dr. Harris said. “It’s an extraordinary growth opportunity for your organization to be out in front of patient blood management.”

3. A strong partnership increases program success.

Understanding that a blood management and anemia program could get back much-needed clinician time, Atrium embarked on its patient blood management program at a time of severe workforce shortages. To accelerate the process and build a solid foundation to support success, Atrium needed a strong change management partner, which they found in hc1 + Accumen. “The hc1 + Accumen team . . . is boots on the ground. They are sitting across the table with you and your leaders and your physicians and nurses, face-to-face, helping you build that programmatic infrastructure,” Mr. Catarella said.

hc1 + Accumen’s MyBloodHealth® solution uses a high reliability, purpose-built process and a data-rich analytics platform. MyBloodHealth connects to your EMR and using proprietary algorithms, identifies anemic patients who can be treated before surgery, sends them to a virtual waiting room to triage the their severity of anemia, analyzes the time frame to surgery and determines whether treatment is recommended..

hc1 + Accumen clients see between a four to six times ROI on their investment, including a $1,250 per DRG savings and a $600 to $700 net margin increase for patients treated for anemia.

Patient blood management leads to better patient outcomes and results in substantial cost savings for healthcare organizations. However, any successful implementation requires strong change management skills and leadership and physician support. hc1 + Accumen combines people, process, and technology to disrupt health system processes for the better.

 

Learn more about how hc1+Accumen can design a Comprehensive Patient Blood Management program to meet the unique needs of your hospital or health system, ensuring a swift and efficient path to cost savings while elevating patient outcomes.

By Brent Bolton
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This article was originally published and written in Laboratory Economics Volume 19, No. 5 May 2024 issue.

Introduction

Most health systems and their labs remain under financial pressure due to rising employee costs and inflation. As a result, they are looking to cut costs anywhere they can, including reference (aka send-out) testing expenses.  hc1+Accumen negotiates about 15-20 reference lab agreements per year for health systems and hospitals.

Below we summarize strategies for negotiating your lab’s next reference testing contract from Accumen’s Brent Bolton, VP/GM, Strategic Partnerships.

What is the average percentage of hospital lab budget spent on reference testing?

Lab department costs average about 4% of the total hospital operating cost budget. And about 30% of the lab budget is spent on lab supplies. Reference testing is around 20% of overall lab sup­plies cost. So, reference testing represents an average of roughly 6% of the hospital lab budget and less than 1% of the average hospital’s total expenses.

Who else besides ARUP, Labcorp, Mayo and Quest should an RFP go to?

Depending on where the hospital lab is located, it may also want to consider regional labs. A few examples include Wisconsin Diagnostic Labs (WDL), TriCore, Sonic Healthcare, BioReference and Cleveland Clinic.

In addition, it’s good to get pricing from some of the secondary/specialty labs that focus on eso­teric testing, toxicology testing and other labs that do third-party testing. Some specialty tests will be lower-cost and have a quicker turnaround time when ordered directly from a secondary lab like NeoGenomics. As a result, it often makes sense to carve out certain specialty tests from the primary reference lab agreement.

What length of term should a new reference testing contract be?

Three years is generally the average reference lab contract duration. Five years is okay if you can get significant discounts. There should never be volume commitments with the reference lab agree­ment; it should be a fee schedule only with fixed pricing. Auto renewals are also acceptable as long as there is pricing protection.

How many tests should be included in an RFP?

All your send-out tests should be included. This might result in an RFP with 1,000+ tests.

Will FDA regulation of LDTs cause hospitals to send out more tests to reference labs?

Under the FDA’s initial proposed regulations, we thought the outcome was going to be cata­strophic for some hospital labs. They would have had to send out all of their LDT testing to one of the national reference labs. With the final FDA ruling, there appears to be a lot more flexibility. It looks like hospitals will be exempt from having to file premarket applications with the FDA for their existing LDTs.

What about new esoteric tests that are introduced after a reference testing contract is signed?

Labs must consistently monitor and manage send-out testing to ensure new expensive testing does not fall through the cracks. For any tests with significant volume or high pricing, request multiple bids to compare with the primary reference lab pricing even after the primary reference lab agree­ment is signed. Many of the reference labs will allow for annual pricing reviews on the testing that was not included in the original RFP, especially if this new testing is increasing volumes and revenues to the reference lab. If the agreement is done well, this new testing can help to get rebates or volume discounts which will minimize the overall cost increase exposure.

What are some tips to help make sure that hospitals don’t overpay for reference testing?

Conducting an RFP with multiple reference labs that are legitimate options will help ensure hospi­tals are not overpaying for reference testing.

One cost that can sneak up on a hospital lab is miscellaneous testing. The physician may choose to send testing to the primary reference lab but specify that it is performed at a specialty lab (com­monly known as a pass through). The primary reference will then mark up that testing and also charge handling fees. It will be reported on the hospital lab’s bill as a miscellaneous test. Hospital labs need to monitor these miscellaneous testing codes, descriptions and fees and see if that testing can be performed at the primary reference lab instead.

Could pricing for reference tests simply be set at a percentage of the Medicare CLFS rates?

Yes, it is possible, but the reference labs will never willingly change to this transparent pricing model on all testing without federal regulatory enforcement. Reference labs commonly set pricing based on several factors including total revenue projections and test volumes; and not necessarily on a test-by-test basis. As a result, the biggest determinant to pricing is the amount of reference lab competition available to each hospital lab client.

What are your thoughts on using benchmarking pricing in the RFP process?

Most benchmark pricing is just averages on top of other averages, and the data is often outdated. It generally does not account for market changes, rebates, or the hidden value adds that a vendor can provide. A health system may feel they are getting a good deal — even when they are not. The only truly accurate benchmark pricing comes from utilizing a third party (e.g., Accumen) that sees real time national market data from every reference lab, every GPO, and every size hospital.

Can you provide average pricing data on some commonly referred tests?

Average pricing per test is extremely subjective, as it is based on the performing testing lab and location, but most notably the pricing is based on the per test volumes sent to the reference lab. It is more important to look at the total cost of aggregated reference lab testing costs versus focusing on individual test codes, unless, of course, there are significant pricing outliers. Pricing for testing can range significantly given the variables I’ve mentioned. For example, a chlamydia trachomatis/ neisseria gonorrhoeae (CT/NG) amplified probe can range anywhere from $15-$40.

What kind of savings can hospitals expect when sending out an RFP for reference testing?

Savings are dependent on each situation and each hospital lab’s level of leverage. As I mentioned earlier, true competition is the best driver for aggressive savings (and that’s more than just sending out RFP’s). That said, we generally see savings of 10%+ for contract renewals with an incumbent reference lab and up to 25% if a reference lab vendor change is made (which can be a heavy lift for the hospital as it involves a lot of scarce IT resources).

What makes the IT transition to a new reference lab so difficult?

It’s difficult because health system IT resources are generally constrained, thereby creating a bottleneck. Every individual send-out test has to be built into the LIS, and there could be thou­sands of tests that the health system or hospital sends to the new primary reference lab. Each one of those tests will have a test code, description, reference range for each result, specimen collection information, etc. that needs to be added to ensure test orders and results are entered accurately.

Can’t hospitals simply take advantage of reference testing contracts through their GPO?

Yes. Hospitals can always utilize the GPO pricing tiers that they qualify for, and that will prevent them from overpaying on reference lab testing. But to maximize savings, value adds, and create favorable contract terms, the best way is to create an agreement between the hospital and the refer­ence lab with a fee schedule that is custom tailored for the hospital. As mentioned earlier, the best way to do that is to have a competitive bidding process that looks at each hospital’s unique test mix, volumes, service level requirements, and consolidation/standardization opportunities. The GPO contract will not take all those particulars into account. It’s also worth noting that a refer­ence lab fee schedule is one of the most important agreements that a hospital can negotiate, so it’s always worth the effort to do so.

 

Learn more about how hc1+Accumen can work alongside your organization to make sure you receive the best reference test pricing. 

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Brent Bolton, MBA, CPSM is VP, Strategic Partnerships for hc1 + Accumen. Brent is a Supply Chain and Materials Management expert with over 20 years’ experience in the manufacturing and healthcare industry. He is results driven, and has a proven track record of cost reduction, continuous process improvement, and strategic partnerships.​ Brent has an MBA from Point Loma Nazarene University and a BS in Business Management with an emphasis in Supply Chain Management from Arizona State University. Brent is an Adjunct Professor for the College of Business at San Diego State University, teaching graduate courses in management of operations and supply chain systems. He is a Certified Professional in Supply Chain (CPSM), and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.

By Mackin Bannon
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September 18, 2024

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “Precision care will only be as good as the tests that guide diagnosis and treatment.” One way to ensure patients are getting the best tests for them is through guidelines-driven, appropriate test utilization. 

Approximately 70 percent of medical decisions are based on pathology and laboratory test results. Many pathology and laboratory tests, however, are ordered without sufficient information to be specific to the patient’s needs.

Insights as part of the workflow enables precision care

Thousands of tests are available and the guidelines around how those tests should be used and for whom changes regularly. Our healthcare providers cannot possibly keep up with this massive database of lab testing information and then tailor it to the specific patient’s needs. As hc1 CEO Brad Bostic has said, “They are not cyborgs; they cannot remember every single thing or keep up-to-date on every single new thing.”

Lab testing is the single highest-volume medical activity, yet 21% of diagnostic tests are misused or even overlooked. The challenge health systems face is two-fold: first, they must identify the root cause of inefficient or wasteful practices that include high-cost, low-value, duplicative and antiquated test ordering, and second, they must identify missed opportunities to deliver the right test to the right patient at the right time to avoid rehospitalizations, ER visits and other consequences.

hc1 strongly advocates for technology that puts the ability to deliver precision healthcare to all patients at the provider’s fingertips as part of their regular workflow. This means having all of the latest test and prescription information and the patient’s health history, genetics and lifestyle information readily available to be able to choose the optimal tests and treatments based on their unique needs and conditions.

Insights make test utilization committees more effective

Many organizations have already established committees focused on improving laboratory stewardship, but often their efforts are slowed by the inability to access the right insights into test ordering practices so that they can take targeted action to effect change. 

With over 2.3 trillion gigabytes of data generated every year in healthcare, there is a lot of information to consider when identifying test utilization outside of guidelines. With that data housed in separate and often siloed locations, a method to ingest, organize and normalize it all is necessary to derive meaningful and actionable insights.

Successful lab stewardship committees have a strong, visible commitment from leadership with sufficient human, financial and IT resources allocated. With the right knowledge and tools, they can find inefficiencies and eliminate them with policies, education and technology. The savings that can be realized through implementing an effective program can more than make up for the expense of putting the appropriate resources and team in place to do so.

When structured and supported well, a lab stewardship committee organizes and guides optimal, patient-centric lab testing. Estimates project that health systems can reduce costs up to $5 billion per year just by eliminating redundant tests. Even more savings, and patient satisfaction, can be realized through increasing the use of appropriate tests that diagnose diseases early when treatment can be more effective.

Insights enable health systems to take action

hc1 PrecisionDx Advisor™ is a comprehensive solution that includes both strategic guidance and cloud-based technology to launch an effective utilization program. PrecisionDx Advisor pulls lab testing data directly from the lab information system and checks it against a set of guidelines to identify misutilized testing. We start from a core set of guidelines based on Choosing Wisely® recommendations, then customize them to align with your priorities. 

From there, intuitive, real-time dashboards provide a clear view of testing patterns throughout your organization. You can filter for specific types of testing, compare ordering trends for different locations and track progress to your stewardship goals. You can drill down into pre-built reports to see which providers are ordering tests outside of established guidelines and then use this information to tailor programs directed at the changes that will have the most impact on your health system and the patients within it.

The National Committee for Lab Stewardship recommends interventions that educate and guide and direct measures to eliminate waste, such as:

Educate

  • Provide regular updates on lab capabilities, appropriate use of new diagnostic tests, testing algorithms and tests approaching obsolescence.
  • Deliver information in a variety of ways to suit varied learning styles and habits, such as posters, newsletters, presentations and videos.

Guide

  • Use testing cascades, algorithms and best practice recommendations to implement standardized workflow processes that guide providers toward the most appropriate testing for the patient and reduce the number of inappropriate test orders.
  • Use automatic alerts when testing may be unnecessarily duplicative.
  • Provide feedback to healthcare providers regarding their ordering patterns.

Eliminate Waste

  • Establish a laboratory formulary that provides a concise list of appropriate testing and does not include obsolete or antiquated tests.
  • Identify tests requiring a consultation before ordering, such as complex genetic tests.
  • Provide applicable collection instructions alongside test orders to ensure specimen integrity.

Precision healthcare requires the right patient to have the right test and the right prescription. By using hc1 PrecisionDx Advisor to inject powerful, patient- and provider-specific insights into laboratory stewardship efforts, hc1 is breaking down barriers to reducing test misutilization and delivering precision healthcare for all patients. 

If you’re interested in seeing how hc1 PrecisionDx Advisor can help your organization take the guesswork out of running an effective test utilization program, request a demo today.

 

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Mackin Bannon is the Product Marketing Manager for hc1. Mackin held various roles covering nearly every marketing area before settling on product marketing as a focus and joining hc1 in 2022. During the workday, he enjoys bringing stories to life in clear and creative ways. In his free time, he enjoys following his favorite sports teams, collecting vinyl records and exploring Indianapolis.

By Mackin Bannon
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August 21, 2024

Outreach is an important piece of any successful laboratory. For reference or specialty laboratories, their whole business model is based on acquiring and retaining business from providers. For hospital laboratories, outreach programs can be essential for maximizing capacity and generating additional revenue in the face of rising costs and declining reimbursement.

However, for many labs, technology constraints make growing and managing their outreach programs a challenge. Data and processes are scattered across a variety of disconnected systems and spreadsheets, making it difficult for sales and service teams to collaborate on acquiring new business and ensuring customer satisfaction.

hc1 client M Health Fairview Reference Laboratories (MRL) has built a highly successful outreach program over the years, with over 1,500 active clients. In a recent hc1 webinar, Eric Razskazoff, MRL’s System Manager, Business Development, offered the following tips for growing and managing a lab outreach program.

Leverage Insights to Increase Revenue

Data insights on your clients, such as ordering history and revenue data, can be a great asset in growing your business with existing providers. 

For example, MRL was trying to grow their allergy testing platform, but had a key client that wasn’t ordering any allergy testing. So they pulled ordering history and revenue data for similar clinics and presented this data to the client to make a business case for adding allergy testing.

“We were able to take information that we had in hc1 from a like client of ours and create some solutions to show the other client what they were missing out on and the money they were leaving on the table.”

Educate Providers to Optimize Test Ordering

These same data insights can also be used to educate providers on test ordering best practices. This can both free up capacity for your lab and improve patient care.

Some assisted living providers were over-ordering INRs from MRL. Not only did they lack the capacity and staffing to handle this testing, but it was unnecessary and negatively impacting patient care through patient discomfort, burdening front-line staff, billing denials and unnecessary downstream testing. 

“hc1 gave us the insights needed to identify the providers that were over-ordering. We then partnered with a physician group to have a discussion on the ordering of labs overall, primarily INRs, and if there were better ways to utilize our services and find a win-win for the patients.”

Provide Proactive Customer Service

While it’s one thing to bring in new business, it’s equally important to provide strong, proactive customer service to retain that business.

Having comprehensive, real-time insights into client health, such as volume, turnaround time and client issues is key to getting ahead of problems before it’s too late. For example, MRL had a client that was continually sending incorrect billing information. With hc1, they were able to identify these issues and work with the client on a resolution.

“We wanted to provide that information to the client to say, ‘this is what we’re seeing.’ hc1 was able to help us see these issues so we could improve the process, not only for us, but for our client as well.”

Implement Easy-to-Use Technology

Each of the previous three tips are essential for labs to grow and manage their outreach programs. But without a comprehensive, easy-to-use technology platform to manage it all, reps will be stuck spending much of their time toggling between systems and carrying out manual workflows.

hc1 pulls labs’ disparate data sources into a single platform purpose built for clinical laboratories. With sales, service and operations able to access the data and workflows they need in a single platform, labs can eliminate inefficiencies. Plus, with hc1’s easy-to-use, modern interface, reps can get up to speed in no time.

“Reps on our client services team don’t necessarily have a lab background. And I don’t know that you need to have one when using hc1. It’s very simple to use and very user friendly. We use hc1 as our source of truth.”

Could you benefit from a single source of truth for your lab sales and service teams? A platform to help you grow and retain your business? If so, request a demo with an hc1 expert today to learn more about our analytics and CRM tools built for labs.

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Mackin Bannon is the Product Marketing Manager for hc1. Mackin held various roles covering nearly every marketing area before settling on product marketing as a focus and joining hc1 in 2022. During the workday, he enjoys bringing stories to life in clear and creative ways. In his free time, he enjoys following his favorite sports teams, collecting vinyl records and exploring Indianapolis.

By Mackin Bannon
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August 7, 2024

Many labs struggle to obtain the insights they need to run their business, for a variety of reasons. All too often, labs run on an array of siloed systems – the LIS, the billing system, the CRM – that don’t talk to one another and aren’t designed to provide robust lab analytics, enable effective outreach or manage customer service. 

Some labs may manage reporting and outreach manually in spreadsheets, a time-consuming process when there is little time to waste. Others may rely on teams outside the lab and hope they have time to get to their project. But these groups, such as IT, are stretched just as thin as the laboratory and often have to serve the entire organization.

What labs need is a technology solution that not only provides them the data and tools they need, but that enables them to self-serve. When lab leaders are enabled with robust analytics built for the lab that are quick and easy to access and allow for customization, it allows them to make timely, data-driven decisions to grow their business and improve patient care.

Thankfully, hc1 is able to provide that solution! Continue reading to learn more about how hc1 enables lab leaders to become their own data analyst with self-serve reporting built for the lab.

hc1 Gets the Lab

Part of what makes hc1 so unique is that we exclusively serve clinical laboratories. hc1 was created because our founder recognized that if labs could organize the vast amounts of powerful data they produce into actionable insights, they could be empowered to better manage operations, as well as personalize and advance care for all patients. 

Because of this, we understand laboratories both from a relational and technical perspective. We know labs’ struggles, goals and desires, because many of our employees are former laboratorians. And we’re masters of healthcare data and laboratories’ native data format, having served hundreds of lab locations and integrated with over 80 unique lab systems.

All Your Lab Data in One Place

hc1 tears down the data silos in your lab by aggregating your key lab data sources into a single, cloud-based environment. This eliminates those hours upon hours of manual data collection. Then, to power you up, we can integrate other data sources – billing, couriers, supplies, instrumentation, EMR – to help you surpass the limitations of these narrowly focused systems.

We also standardize and validate your data. Just like not all PR is good PR, not all data is good data. Data on tests or patient encounters in different systems doesn’t always line up. There can be inconsistencies between hospitals within a health system or lab departments within an organization. Messy data will produce messy results, so we ensure that your data is clean so you can gain accurate insights into your lab.

Robust, Real-Time Lab Reporting

Our suite of robust analytics tools goes far beyond what laboratory information systems, or even big-name analytics tools, can provide. Built for the lab from the ground up, hc1 unlocks your data’s vast potential by revealing actionable insights that enable you to drive superior performance and care.

With hc1, you no longer need to turn to IT or other teams for custom lab reporting – you have everything you need at your fingertips.

Become Your Own Data Analyst

However, for those times where you do want to go beyond what hc1’s standard dashboards provide, we offer hc1 Insights Builder. This tool enables you to design, build and manage custom dashboards and reports. Whether you want to copy and tweak one of our standard dashboards or create something from scratch, we give you the power to design data analytics to meet your needs – without needing advanced knowledge or expertise.

With Insights Builder, you don’t have to:

  • Pay exorbitant consulting fees to have a vendor expert come in and create custom reports.
  • Download and manipulate data in Excel, putting your organization at risk of a security breach.
  • Sit around and wait for other teams to get to your custom reporting request.

hc1 can serve as your lab’s single source of truth – the one place you can go to gain insight into all areas of your business. No more siloed data. No more manual processes. No more reliance on other teams to get you the information you need to succeed. To see how hc1 can help you become your own data analyst, request a demo with an hc1 expert today.

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Mackin Bannon is the Product Marketing Manager for hc1. Mackin held various roles covering nearly every marketing area before settling on product marketing as a focus and joining hc1 in 2022. During the workday, he enjoys bringing stories to life in clear and creative ways. In his free time, he enjoys following his favorite sports teams, collecting vinyl records and exploring Indianapolis.