American Esoteric Laboratories announces acquisition of Memphis Pathology Laboratory
Memphis, TN ? September 24, 2004 American Esoteric Laboratories, Inc. (AEL), a full-service provider of esoteric and other clinical reference laboratory services, today announced it has acquired Memphis Pathology Laboratory (MPL). MPL, a joint venture owned by MDS Inc., Baptist Memorial Health Care, and Methodist Healthcare, is a state-of-the-art, community-based core clinical laboratory serving customers in Memphis and the surrounding area, including parts of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri and Kentucky.
The MPL acquisition allows AEL to further expand its national footprint and achieve its mission to provide the widest range of quality, specialized and cost-effective testing services to enhance patient care for its customers in both urban and rural markets.
??One of the main goals of AEL is to provide our target customers the fastest turn-around-time on clinical laboratory results in the industry,? said Brian Carr, chairman and chief executive officer of AEL. "MPL fits uniquely into this strategy on several levels. With their Memphis location and our soon-to-open Dallas-based laboratory, AEL will now have an extensive menu of routine and esoteric clinical tests in two of the nation?s top transportation hubs. This is very significant for us from a competitive standpoint, as we?ll be able to leverage our logistics advantage to improve turn-around-time for our customers. There are more than 1,000 direct flights into Dallas each day and Memphis has a combined 500 commercial flights arriving daily. In addition, FedEx calls Memphis home and UPS? third-largest US facility is based here. Therefore, in most cases, we can avoid the hub-and-spoke issues that plague other labs and delay results delivery.? ?
John Mazzei, executive director of MPL, stated, ?Our combination with AEL is excellent news for our customers, employees, and Memphis, in general. Our previous hospital owners at Baptist and Methodist recognized that AEL shares their vision for the growth of our business, and consequently jobs, here in Memphis. AEL is an exceptional organization that has exciting plans for growth, but their commitment to patient and customer satisfaction is what drives them and impressed us the most.? ?
Carr added, ?MPL, its management team and partners have done an outstanding job in developing a powerful regional laboratory. They are widely known in their region and the broader medical community as possessing a wide array of routine and esoteric clinical testing capabilities coupled with a superior level of personalized service to their hospital and physician clients. We are excited to have the opportunity to assist them in further solidifying their existing customer relationships through an enhanced and expanding clinical esoteric test menu and additional information technology investments. Additionally, we will be opening new market opportunities for MPL that are consistent with our business plan and philosophies while also leveraging Memphis? logistical advantages.?
Chris McLean, senior vice president of finance for Methodist, said, "We enjoyed a good working relationship with MDS and Baptist under the prior arrangement, but now with the change in MDS's business strategy, we believe AEL to be the best company for ensuring continued high quality service to our lab customers and our patients."
?We are thrilled that such a well-respected organization as AEL will be providing lab services in the Memphis area,? said Don Pounds, senior vice president and chief financial officer for Baptist. ?This move will allow us to concentrate on what we do best ? caring for patients ? while helping ensure MPL?s customers continue to receive the same reliable, convenient service they?re receiving now.?
As part of the agreement, AEL acquired the entire operations of MPL, with the exception of their anatomic pathology services, which were sold to Duckworth Pathology Group prior to the transaction closing. Current MPL management and its entire employee base will stay in place and AEL expects MPL to continue to expand its offerings and services.
About Memphis Pathology Laboratory
Prior to AEL?s acquisition, Memphis Pathology Laboratory (MPL), was a joint venture owned by MDS Inc., Baptist Memorial Health Care, and Methodist Healthcare. MPL is a community-based core laboratory serving customers in Memphis and the surrounding area, including parts of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri and Kentucky. In September 2003, MPL merged with Methodist Healthcare subsidiary, Med Lab, another Memphis laboratory to strengthen patient care and enhance service. Under the banner of MPL, the lab provides fast, accurate test results to its regional customers. MPL's 35,000 sq. ft. laboratory is located at 5846 Distribution Drive, just east of the Memphis International Airport, about twenty minutes from downtown. For more information, visit www.mpllab.com
About American Esoteric Laboratories, Inc.
American Esoteric Laboratories, Inc. (AEL) is a company designed to provide industry leading turn-around-time, informatics, personalized service, and other qualitative services in clinical reference testing to hospitals and other specialized healthcare providers. The company?s primary emphasis is on clinical esoteric tests, which provide physicians with the clinical information required to complete a diagnosis, establish a prognosis, or to choose and monitor a therapeutic regimen. The company frequently partners with hospitals that have an outreach presence to compete in the routine test market. AEL uses advanced information technology solutions to accelerate and automate electronic assay ordering and results reporting for its customers. AEL?s Dallas laboratory will be located at 6221 Riverside Drive, Suite 119, Irving, TX 75039, about ten minutes from DFW International Airport. For more information visit: www.ael.com
Press Contact: Thomas Aitchison
Blanc & Otus Public Relations
(512) 335-8771, x15 taitchison@blancandotus.com
MPL, Med Lab combine forces to enhance testing expertise, efficiency and service MEMPHIS, TN (September 16, 2003) ? Two regional healthcare leaders are joining forces to improve service and efficiency by merging their clinical testing laboratories.
Memphis Pathology Laboratory (MPL), an independent joint venture between Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp. and MDS Inc., will join with Med Lab, a subsidiary of Methodist Healthcare. Beginning October 1, Baptist, Methodist and MDS will be partners in the combined operation. The expanded partnership is committed to working together to find clinical laboratory answers for the healthcare community.
"Two major healthcare providers will now be working together to strengthen patient care and service to our physicians and hospital clients," said John Mazzei, Executive Director of MPL, who will head the new partnership. "It's a wonderful message for the healthcare community." Under the banner of MPL, the two labs will combine staff and expertise to provide fast, accurate test results to customers in Memphis and the surrounding area, including parts of Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Kentucky.
"In addition to this collaborative effort being a sound business decision for all parties, the partnership will improve laboratory services to physicians across the Mid-South," said Cameron J. Welton, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Methodist Healthcare.
"We're looking forward to working together with Methodist Healthcare as a new partner in this venture, just as we work with them on Hospital Wing, the Mid-town Surgery Center, and the Medical Education and Research Institute," said David Hogan, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp. "MPL has a long history of excellent service to the healthcare community, and we look forward to continuing and expanding that."
By eliminating duplication, the combined laboratory will simplify patient access and streamline physician office procedures. The new venture supports the ongoing retention of clinical expertise locally and keeps testing services closer to home. Gains include wider scope of services, including more phlebotomy stations, unified courier routes, faster turnaround, and improvements in information technology.
The partnership will enhance MPL's strong commitment to customer service. MPL and Med Lab are expecting a smooth transition. Representatives from both labs will contact Med Lab customers to assure them of continuity and quality of service. Employees of both organizations will work together for solutions in a coordinated manner.
"I have great respect for the Med Lab team," said MPL's Mazzei. "Their dedicated, trained professionals will fit right in with MPL's culture of clinical expertise and exemplary service."
The partnership builds on MPL's outstanding brand recognition and record. MPL is a community-based core laboratory that uses advanced technology, clinical expertise and professional couriers to provide answers when customers need them. It offers a full range of services, including an esoteric test menu, forensic toxicology services and comprehensive microbiology services. MPL provides more than 4 million tests annually for physicians, hospitals and long-term care facilities. Areas of testing include hematology, chemistry, immunology, infectious diseases, urinalysis and cytology. For more on MPL, visit www.mpllab.com.
MPL's joint venture partner, MDS Inc., is an international health and life sciences company. In many of its products and services, MDS is among the largest and most respected companies in the world.
One of the largest not-for-profit healthcare systems in the United States, Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp. offers a full continuum of care to communities throughout the Mid-South. The BMHCC network consists of 17 hospitals; more than 2,900 affiliated physicians; home, hospice and psychiatric care throughout the tri-state area; minor medical centers and clinics; a chain of surgery, rehabilitation and other outpatient centers; and an education system highlighted by the Baptist College of Health Sciences. BMHCC is one of the top-rated integrated healthcare delivery systems in the country, according to the American Hospital Association, and the only Memphis-based provider that spans three states.
Methodist Healthcare is a healthcare delivery system headquartered in Memphis that operates eight hospitals in the area with 1,520 licensed beds. Methodist Healthcare includes Methodist University Hospital, Methodist North, Methodist South, Methodist Le Bonheur Germantown, Methodist Extended Care Hospital, Methodist Fayette Hospital, Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center, and UT Bowld, a transplant and specialty hospital. Methodist Healthcare is the second largest hospital in the country and the second largest private employer in Memphis. It is also ranked number one in market share among Memphis hospitals. The system also includes a home health agency, ambulatory surgery centers and diagnostic facilities, clinics and a variety of medical and surgical residency programs and other allied health education programs.
Senate Tax Bill Includes Lab Co-payment Provision Contact House Ways and Means Committee to oppose this $13.4 billion cut in lab payments May 20, 2003
On May 15th, the Senate passed S.1054, the ?Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003,? which cuts taxes and makes a number of revisions to the Medicare program, including establishing a 20 percent Medicare co-payment for laboratory services. The House version of this bill does not include similar language. The two chambers will shortly convene a conference committee to work out an agreement.
You are urged to e-mail your Member of Congress immediately, if he or she serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, and oppose this Senate provision. You can check to see if your Representative serves on the panel, and send him or her an email, by visiting the following site http://waysandmeans.house.gov/members.asp
Here is what a 2000 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, "Medicare Laboratory Payment Policy: Now and In the Future,? which was requested by Congress, had to say about adopting a Medicare co-payment for laboratory services:
?The current policy of not requiring beneficiary cost sharing for Medicare outpatient clinical laboratory services should continue. Cost sharing is unlikely to significantly reduce overuse or increase the detection of fraud and abuse; it could create barriers to access for the most vulnerable Medicare beneficiaries; and it would be financially and administratively burdensome for laboratories, patients, and the Medicare program depending upon its design.?
Key points to make in your e-mail:
Co-payments would hurt Medicare beneficiaries by increasing their out-of-pocket costs for laboratory testing by 20 percent, while possibly discouraging them from getting vital tests ordered by their physician;
Co-payments will not change test utilization patterns, since physicians, not patients, order laboratory tests; and
Co-payments will impose cuts on laboratories, since many patients will not pay the small amounts on the bills?thus laboratories will suffer both the loss of payment from the beneficiary, as well as the additional costs of billing for the services.
According to the IOM, ?A co-payment of 20 percent - on average - would be less than $2.30 for the 100 highest dollar volume tests. The average number of tests per patient claim in some laboratories is 2.5, but the cost of producing and sending a letter could be more than $5.? As a result, the IOM concluded ?administering co-payments is impractical because the cost to the laboratory of billing and collecting the co-payment will often exceed the expected payment amount.?
