New Lab Formations Continue To Boom

by Jondavid Klipp | Aug 15, 2021 | CLIA, CMS, COVID-19, Laboratory Economics

New Lab Formations Continue To Boom

The extraordinary demand for Covid-19 PCR, antigen and antibody testing continues to fuel a record number of new CLIA-certified lab formations, according to the latest CMS data analyzed by Laboratory Economics. More than 7,000 new CLIA lab certificates were issued in the second quarter (April 1-June 30, 2021). The all-time high (12,000+ new CLIA labs) occurred in the fourth quarter of 2020. The boom has created a huge demand for lab workers that had already been in short supply before the pandemic.

Medical Technologist Shortages Widespread

by Jondavid Klipp | Aug 15, 2021 | Alverno Labs

Medical Technologist Shortages Widespread

Medical technologists (MTs) have been in chronic short supply for at least the past 20 years. In the past, labs have used sign-on bonuses ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 to attract MTs. Last month, Laboratory Economics highlighted Alverno Laboratories (Hammond, IN) use of $10,000 sign-on bonuses to try to fill hundreds of open positions. We thought it was unusual, but it’s not. Both hospital labs and commercial labs across the country are offering sign-on bonuses ranging as high as $10,000 to $20,000 to fill open MT positions. Night shift and blood banking MT positions appear to be the hardest to fill. Laboratory Economics plans to take a deeper look at the lab industry’s worker shortage in next month’s issue.

Capital Digestive To Open Bigger Pathology Lab

by Jondavid Klipp | Aug 15, 2021 | Capital Digestive Care

Capital Digestive To Open Bigger Pathology Lab

Capital Digestive Care (Silver Spring, MD) has announced plans to relocate and expand its pathology lab to Silver Spring, Maryland. The new lab will be 21,000 square feet and is expected to open in early 2022. In addition, the new lab will become a Roche Diagnostics Center of Excellence and will be expanding its clinical diagnostics testing menu. Capital Digestive Care’s current lab is CAP accredited and located in Bowie, Maryland. Its Medical Director Jeffrey Baybick, MD, had founded an independent pathology lab (Bay Labs) in 2004 that was merged into Capital Digestive Care in 2009. Capital Digestive Care is the largest private practice gastroenterology group in the Mid-Atlantic. The group has 20+ offices in the greater Washington, DC area and includes more than 80 physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, seeing 75,000+ patients and performing 35,000+ colonoscopies per year.

Alverno Labs To Implement Artificial Intelligence For Pathology

by Jondavid Klipp | Aug 15, 2021 | AI, Alverno Labs, Digital Pathology

Alverno Labs To Implement Artificial Intelligence For Pathology

Alverno Laboratories (Hammond, IN), which transitioned to digital pathology in 2019 when it implemented Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution, now says it will add artificial intelligence to aid its pathologists in cancer diagnosis. Alverno will use the Galen AI system developed by Ibex
Medical Analytics (Tel Aviv, Israel). Ibex’s Galen platform recently received the Breakthrough Device Designation from FDA, which will help fast track the clinical review and clearance process, and is CE marked in Europe for
breast and prostate cancer. Alverno is an independent lab owned by Franciscan Alliance and AMITA Health. Alverno manages a core lab and 32 hospital labs in Indiana and Illinois. It consults on 150,000 histological cases per year, which translates to more than 1.1 million tissue slides.

Fulgent Genetics Acquires CSI Laboratories For $50+ Million

by Jondavid Klipp | Aug 15, 2021 | Flow Cytometry, Fulgent Genetics

Fulgent Genetics Acquires CSI Laboratories For $50+ Million

Fulgent Genetics Inc. (Temple City, CA) has acquired Cytometry Specialists Inc. (Alpharetta, GA), which does business as CSI Laboratories, for $50 million in cash plus up to $10 million more in potential future milestone payments.

CSI Labs was founded by its Chairman Ron Ghafary in 1997. The company operates a main CAP-accredited lab in Alpharetta, Georgia, and a smaller lab in Jupiter, Florida. CSI Labs has 180 employees, including 10 pathologists. It performs more than 400 types of cancer tests, with its highest volumes in flow cytometry. Laboratory Economics estimates that CSI Labs annual revenue is in the range of $30-$60 million.

Synergy Capital Investments (Atlanta, GA) obtained an equity stake and a board seat at CSI Labs in 2019.

Fulgent Genetics is a publicly traded company that operates genetic testing labs in Temple City, California, and Houston, Texas. The company reported net income of $280.5 million in the six months ended June 30, 2021, versus $1.4 million in the same period a year earlier; revenue skyrocketed to $513 million from $25 million. Billable test volume jumped to 5.3 million tests from 194,000 tests. Fulgent’s incredible growth was primarily fueled by Covid-19 PCR testing. Its largest clients include the County of Los Angeles and San Bernardino County.