New frontiers for diagnostic testing: taking advantage of forces changing health care.

The transformation of the health-care industry holds great economic potential for laboratory diagnostic testing providers who understand the five market forces driving change and who are shaping their own roles in the emerging market. Because of these trends, provider-based laboratories (PBLs) are competing with independent laboratories (ILs) for the latter's traditional client base--outpatients and nonpatients. PBLs will continue to service acute care patients while becoming more IL-like in logistics, sales, customer service, and marketing. Forced to compete on price, ILs have engaged in mega-mergers and will try to break into acute care via joint ventures. The ILs will need to choose their markets carefully, solidly integrate with parent organizations, and find ways to be profit centers. Consumers' demands also are forcing change. Consumers want accurate, legible bills and simplified eligibility determination and registration. They want an emphasis on prevention and wellness, which means that diagnostic testing must address early identification and monitoring of high-risk groups. To realize cost-efficiencies under whole-life capitation, laboratory networks must be part of a completely integrated health-care system. The laboratory of the future will be multicentered, without walls, and with quick access to information through technology.