Media Coverage

Nineteen New Jersey companies received perfect scores in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2019 Corporate Equality Index, used to judge how employers meet the needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community with policies and practices. Other top-score earners include Subaru of America Inc. in Cherry Hill; Prudential Financial Inc. in Newark; BASF Corp. in Florham Park; ADP in Roseland; Dun & Bradstreet Corp. in Short Hills; Campbell Soup Co. in Camden; Quest Diagnostics Inc. in Lyndhurst; Becton, Dickinson and Co. in Franklin Lakes; Wyndham Destinations in Parsippany; Horizon Healthcare Services Inc. in Newark; Day Pitney LLP in Parsippany; Bayer U.S. LLC in Whippany; Celgene Corp. in Summit; Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick; Merck in Kenilworth; Sanofi in Bridgewater; Unilever in Englewood Cliffs; and American Express Global Business Travel in Jersey City.

Four companies were recognized for their contributions to Quest while displaying behavior consistent with the company’s values of Quality, Integrity, Innovation, Accountability, Collaboration and Leadership. The awards were given during a meeting which brought together senior executives from over 40 key suppliers.

It has been a tough stretch for health-care stocks in 2019, and there is a good chance it isn’t over yet.[CR-LF][CR-LF]Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is one of several Democratic presidential candidates pushing for Medicare for All. With the 2020 presidential election still 18 months away, the direction of health-care policy is likely to remain.[CR-LF][CR-LF]Quest Diagnostics (DGX) yields 2.2%. The company provides medical tests for a long list of medical conditions, including lung cancer, allergies, and hepatitis C. Last month it was named a preferred labor provider for UnitedHealth.

The reality of legalization in Illinois, if it happens at all, would likely be much hazier. Some employers might start turning a blind eye to employee use - as long as workers can still do their jobs - a trend that's already happening in some other states where it's legal. Other employers, however, might still ban its use, taking action against employees who test positive for pot, bolstered by federal law under which marijuana is still illegal, experts say. In Colorado, about 96 percent of employers who used the drug testing company Quest Diagnostics in 2017 still included marijuana in their employee drug testing, said Dr. Barry Sample, senior director of science and technology for Quest's employers solutions business. In Nevada, where recreational cannabis use is also legal, that number was 91 percent in 2017.

Recent surveys indicate that a majority of the nation's hospital and health system CEOs and CFOs are unaware of the requirement that they report their private payer clinical laboratory test price data to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) starting Jan. 1, 2020. Hospitals that fail to report this data may be assessed penalties of up to $10,000 per day. "Last December, a survey of hospital and health network C-level administrators conducted by Modern Healthcare and Quest Diagnostics revealed that nearly 80% of survey respondents were unaware that their institutions met the definition of 'applicable laboratory' and were thus legally required to report the clinical laboratory test prices they were paid by private health insurers," explained Robert L. Michel, Editor-In-Chief of THE DARK REPORT.

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, the world's leading provider of diagnostic information services, received a perfect score of 100 from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation on the 2019 Corporate Equality Index, earning the distinction of being a "Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality." The Corporate Equality Index (CEI) is a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ workplace equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. This is third year Quest has earned the designation as a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality.

Quest Diagnostics, the world's leading provider of diagnostic information services, hosted Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker at its state-of-the-art clinical testing laboratory in Marlborough, Massachusetts on Friday, March 29. During the visit Governor Baker toured the laboratory, met with employees, and learned more about the company's initiatives in the areas of pricing transparency, Alzheimer's treatment and detection, and combatting the opioid epidemic. Marlborough Mayor Arthur Vigeant joined Governor Baker on the visit.

The prospect of marijuana legalization might inspire visions of weed-smoking breaks at work, or grabbing a joint with co-workers after a hectic day at the office.[CR-LF][CR-LF]But the reality of legalization in Illinois, if it happens at all, would likely be much hazier. Some employers might start turning a blind eye to employee use — as long as workers can still do their jobs — a trend that’s already happening in some other states where it’s legal. Other employers, however, might still ban its use, taking action against employees who test positive for pot, bolstered by federal law under which marijuana is still illegal, experts say. In Colorado, about 96 percent of employers who used the drug testing company Quest Diagnostics in 2017 still included marijuana in their employee drug testing, said Dr. Barry Sample, senior director of science and technology for Quest’s employers solutions business. In Nevada, where recreational cannabis use is also legal, that number was 91 percent in 2017.

Currently 10 states and Washington, D.C., allow recreational use of marijuana, and Illinois, New Jersey and New York are considering doing the same. This puts companies—already grappling with a shortage of workers—in a bind because an increasing number of candidates are failing routine drug tests due to smoking pot in those states, the Wall Street Journal reports. While legalized marijuana has created jobs and brought in additional tax dollars for those states, the spillover effect has more job applicants unable to pass standard drug tests, according to Quest Diagnostics.

In a perspective article in the New York Times, Dr. Diane M. Simeone, who directs the Pancreatic Cancer Center at New York University Langone Health, suggested that early detection is a solution. Quest Diagnostics found that 5.3 percent of retail workers tested positive for drugs in 2017, up from 4.7 percent in 2015, and the highest of any job sector. The Quest sampling suggests that about 837,000 of the 15.8 million retail workers across the U.S. would have tested positive if all had been checked.