Large numbers of hospitals have negative operating margins, and he says reorganization and changes in ownership are more likely. Dr. DeCresce urges pathologists not to lose sight of their basic source of income. If we focus on the technical component changes and how they affect us, we may win the TC battle, and that's great, but that doesn't help us if the hospital is mortally wounded. I'd still be very nervous, because if the hospital goes broke, it doesn't do me much good. Plandowski is more sanguine about the downstream impact of APCs on both independent laboratories and hospitals.
Pathologists still get to bill the professional side.
And I think efficiently run hospitals will do okay. But what they did is specialize in certain areas, phase out of some surgery, and so on. They became more focused and got rid of a lot of the 'fluff,' the areas it was nice to be in but without the critical mass. But it took a number of years for that to happen. He predicts the same outcome with APCs as hospitals take a closer look at their outpatient services.