The sense and cents of send-outs

Sidelining expansion plans, torpedoing new equipment purchases, and handing down budget ultimatums. When lean times loom or spending outstrips revenue, and hospitals seek ways to stem red ink, these are often the strategies of first resort.

The task of getting reference testing costs under control, however, may call for a different game plan. Reference testing is a $6.2 billion market, growing about eight percent per year, and many hospital laboratories cite the taming of reference lab testing costs as one of their leading sources of frustration. At the 20-hospital University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health System, for example, the send-out genetic testing bill at just the core academic hospitals has risen dramatically in the past five or six years and is well into seven figures, says Jeffrey Kant, MD, PhD, director of the Division of Molecular Diagnostics in the Department of Pathology. [more]