[Histonet] Histology Workload

[Cartun, Richard]

Dear Amy:

Some of the companies doing molecular testing will pay you a fee for "specimen procurement/handling" since they realize the burden that these requests put on us.  I suggest calling the company(s) that you deal with and see if you can work something out with them.  And, you're absolutely correct; we are being asked to do more work on specimens today, yet reimbursements are going down.  Not a good combination.  Based on your description of the work that you and your colleagues are doing, you have a good case for additional staffing.  It looks like you would benefit from a lab assistant that could help with accessioning, billing, and send-outs.

Richard

Richard W. Cartun, MS, PhD
Director, Histology & The Martin M. Berman, MD Immunopathology & Morphologic Proteomics Laboratory
Director, Biospecimen Collection Programs
Assistant Director, Anatomic Pathology
Hartford Hospital
80 Seymour Street
Hartford, CT  06102
(860) 972-1596
(860) 545-2204 Fax

-----Original Message-----
From: Amy Self via Histonet [mailto:histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu]
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2015 4:41 PM
To: histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] Histology Workload

Happy Monday to Everyone,

I have been trying[ to figure out how to justify additional help in histology - and it's been hard.  My facility staffs according to billables.  This by no means feels fair to anyone in this department.  You could have a specimen that will provide one billable CPT code but can produce as many as 20 paraffin blocks.  And now it seems like we are getting many request for molecular test that require us to mail the patients material out but we have no way of showing that we did this work - we call this free work. We get no credit for time spent preparing and packaging pathology material to send out to reference labs. Am I missing any CPT codes that can be used to show that we in fact did something in addition to routine pathology to this case.

We have 1 histotech - 1 histotech/histology supervisor and one histology assistant.
Our block load averages from 125 to 170 daily.
We also prep non-gyn cytologies.
Accession all specimens that come in that lab.
All mail-outs
The histotech/histology supervisor is responsible for all of the billing as well as keeping up with new and old policies/ requirements for CAP/ auditing billing and the list could go on.

We are drowning in our own workload but don't know how to prove that the help is needed.  Any help - advice - suggestions anything will be appreciated. How can I prove to upper management that we need more help although the billables/productivity numbers say different?

Thanks in advance,
Amy Self
Histology Lab Senior Tech
Lab
Tidelands Georgetown Memorial Hospital
606 Black River Road
Georgetown, SC 29440
843-520-8711
ASelf at tidelandshealth.org

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