As the healthcare industry continues to evolve, medical laboratories find themselves in a unique position. Historically one of the least recognized medical specialties, laboratories are now an important part of the healthcare equation.according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 14 billion laboratory tests are ordered annually, with 70% of medical decisions depending on their findings. As a result, laboratories have become organizations that connect physicians with the information they need to provide quality care.
But healthcare professionals aren’t the only ones ordering lab tests these days. The era of healthcare consumerism is changing the way patients access healthcare. This is especially true when it comes to medical testing. Patients who now want more control over their care are taking the initiative and ordering medical tests for themselves.
As more patients demand direct-to-consumer (DTC) laboratory testing, medical laboratories will need to reconfigure and upgrade key aspects of their operations to properly serve these new healthcare consumers. Labs are no longer purely business-to-business efforts and now find themselves entering the consumer market. Labs that want to grow with the paradigm shift will need to plan accordingly.
The rise of patient consumerism
Patient consumerism is a movement to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of healthcare delivery. The popularity of direct-to-consumer lab testing is expected to continue to grow exponentially as more patients adopt a self-help healthcare mentality. Labs that don’t plan to address this new market are likely to miss out on a huge opportunity.
LigoLab For example, one of the providers of enterprise software solutions (LIS, RCM, DTC) for pathology and reference laboratories.The 16-year-old company offers a direct-to-consumer web platform called direct test, which serves a network of laboratories, specimen collection centers, urgent care facilities, and outpatient clinics across the United States that has collected, processed, and reported more than 20 million Covid-19 tests since the pandemic first began in the spring 2020. While the portal was originally intended and still serves as a tool to bring labs and patients closer for various forms of diagnostic testing and preventive screening, as one might expect, the vast majority of testing is Over the past two years against Covid-19.
It seems that LigoLab has unearthed something important through its TestDirectly portal. It is estimated that Global Market for Direct-to-Consumer Laboratory Services It will double over the next few years, from $1.4 billion in 2020 to $2.4 billion in 2025. Labs that want to enter this growing market will need to leverage platforms like TestDirectly in order to effectively scale and provide patients with the enhanced experience they now expect as online consumers.
Laying the groundwork for direct-to-consumer lab testing
Aging populations, changing political climates, and increasing out-of-pocket expenses are just a few of the many recent events that have laid the foundation for the rise of specialized laboratory services. With the digital transformation of almost everything, patients have new expectations in healthcare delivery. They now rightfully expect more transparency and greater benefit in decisions about their care.
Direct-to-consumer lab services are similar to over-the-counter drugs available at pharmacies. They are diagnostic tests that patients request without a doctor’s order. However, they should not be confused with over-the-counter laboratory tests. Unlike over-the-counter laboratory tests, direct-to-consumer laboratory services are provided by specialized laboratories and trained laboratory professionals, and results are securely sent directly to the patient upon completion of the laboratory report.
Direct-to-consumer testing has two major advantages. First, it removes insurance companies and doctor orders from the equation. As a result, test results are usually available sooner. Second, patients have direct access to their test results. This is especially important for patients who are being tested for health problems and want to keep them private.
remove the middleman
However, it should be noted that patients may need help interpreting their test results. Laboratories can also play an important role in facilitating this process.
One potential downside to direct-to-consumer testing for patients is that payment is often required at the time of service. But it’s a huge plus for lab managers. It eliminates rejections and removes payers from the approval process. It’s also a positive for patients who don’t want to deal with health insurance.
For laboratories, compensation is often highly dependent on insurance companies and other payers, who often refuse to pay for a variety of reasons. The payer also dictates the types of tests that patients can and cannot have through coverage. Ultimately, this makes it difficult for lab managers to keep their organizations financially healthy. Worse yet, it makes it difficult for patients to get good and timely care. Direct-to-consumer lab testing helps address these issues by cutting out the middleman.
Labs must evolve or face obsolescence
Despite all the positives, some labs are still reluctant to offer direct-to-consumer options through their testing menus.
However, some suppliers and policymakers oppose direct-to-consumer lab testing. Many people care about consumers and their ability to make sound decisions based on test results. But opening up more accredited labs to direct-to-consumer testing would eliminate those concerns by meeting regulatory requirements and hiring qualified personnel who can help answer consumer questions related to test results.
Regardless of how lab managers view the issue, direct-to-consumer testing is a growing trend that isn’t going away anytime soon. If labs don’t act now, they may soon find them obsolete, replaced by a more flexible and patient-friendly alternative.
Those forward-thinking labs that do develop will benefit from additional revenue streams and new ways of caring for patients. By providing what patients really want, their customer base and market awareness will grow significantly, opening up more service opportunities such as telemedicine and personalized treatment for individual patients.
Photo: georgeclerk, Getty Images
