Developing an OBL: Key Considerations Before Spending a Dime Or Too Much Time.

The office-based laboratory (OBL) industry has proliferated over the past decade as surgical cases have increasingly migrated from inpatient to outpatient surgical settings, including OBLs, ambulatory surgery centers and infusion centers. Although many physicians and patients prefer to provide and receive care in an OBL setting because it provides a high quality, lower cost and convenient alternative to receiving care in a hospital, the OBL industry is nonetheless under attack on a variety of fronts. Governmental and commercial payor reimbursement for OBL procedures has declined substantially over time, and there have been lawsuits, governmental investigations and news articles that have been critical of care provided in OBLs.

Overview 2012. A year of dialysis industry alignment and government enforcement.

All in all, in the health care industry, the Department of Justice, and related agencies increased enforcement activities in 2012. In December 2012 the Justice Department announced that it had secured $4.9 billion in settlements and judgments in civil cases involving fraud against the government in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2012.