Media Coverage

Shares of LabCorp moved lower following the afternoon disclosure and are trading down $1.51 to $164.12. LabCorp competitor Quest Diagnostics (DGX) gave up some of its gains as well but the shares remain up 51c to $98.67 in afternoon trading.

While the ultimate impact of UnitedHealthcare's newly launched Preferred Laboratory Network remains to be seen, some clinical lab players are suggesting it could be the first step in a broader trend.[CR-LF][CR-LF]Last week UHC announced the lab companies — AmeriPath/DermPath, a division of Quest Diagnostics; BioReference and its GeneDx business; Invitae; Laboratory Corporation of America; Mayo Clinical Laboratories; and Quest — it had selected as participants in its PLN program, which will go into effect on July 1, 2019.

Healthcare Technology Analyst Gill holds a conference call with CEO Rusckowski on May 2 at 1 pm hosted by JPMorgan.

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated executed a shelf takedown of $500 million aggregate principal amount of its 4.200% senior notes due 2029. Goldman Sachs, Mizuho Securities, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Securities and Wells Fargo Securities acted as joint book-running managers for the offering.[CR-LF][CR-LF]Quest Diagnostics Incorporated is the world’s leading provider of diagnostic information services.

The most recent version of an annual report issued by Quest Diagnostics indicates that 4.4 percent of workplace drug tests in 2018 were positive for illicit drugs, an increase over the 4.2 percent positivity rate in 2017 and the highest rate since 2004. According to Quest, the increase was largely fueled by marijuana use. Across the U.S. work force, the percentage of drug tests that were positive for marijuana rose from 2.6 percent in 2017 to 2.8 percent in 2018.