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An Arizona company has a new colon cancer blood test on the market that sounds like an enticing alternative to the oft-dreaded colonoscopy. The $170 blood test, called BeScreened-CRC, was developed by Phoenix-based diagnostics laboratory Beacon Biomedical and is a screening tool for colon cancer, its developer says. Sonora Quest Laboratories in Arizona has offered the test since December, and no doctor's order is required. It's not covered by Medicare. Coverage by commercial insurance plans varies.

Quest Diagnostics, the world's leading provider of diagnostic information services, announced today that it will present results of eight studies at the 2019 American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting, to be held April 2 – 6, 2019 in Seattle, Wash. (Quest Diagnostics booth 929). These studies by Quest Diagnostics researchers evaluate a broad range of laboratory technologies and best practices for aiding in the evaluation of risk for cancer and other diseases.

Last May, food services and facilities management company Sodexo fired a Massachusetts food supervisor after she tested positive for marijuana. It was standard policy—the employee, Bernadette Coughlin, had fallen at work, breaking her arm, and protocol required a mandatory drug test following an injury. Although Coughlin’s job was not “safety sensitive,” Sodexo’s policy was clear: One strike and you’re out. Quest Diagnostics, the medical testing company, has reported that five out of 16 industries—transportation and warehousing, retail trade, public administration, finance and insurance and wholesale trade—saw double-digit growth in positive drug tests between 2015 and 2017, with marijuana being the most commonly detected substance.

On Mar 22, we issued an updated research report on Quest Diagnostics, Inc. As a part of its two-point strategy, Quest Diagnostics has been focusing on areas with high potential. However, the reimbursement scenario remains a major cause of concern for thisZacks Rank #3 (Hold) company. Quest Diagnostics is currently focusing on diagnostic information services and disciplined capital deployment. Meanwhile, the company’s acquisitions and collaborations with hospitals and integrated delivery networks act as major growth drivers.

Companies facing a shortage of employees from health-care workers to forklift operators are confronting a new challenge: finding candidates who can pass drug tests in states that have legalized marijuana. Mentions Quest Drug Testing Index data.

According to Mayo Medical Laboratories' Jane Hermansen, "the best kept secret" at many of the hospitals she has observed over the course of her career is "the net revenue of their lab outreach programs." Quest in recent years has snapped up the outreach businesses of systems including Pacific Northwest-based PeaceHealth, Connecticut's Backus Hospital and the Hospital of Central Connecticut, and Flint, Michigan's Hurley Medical Center. LabCorp, meanwhile, has purchased businesses including Mount Sinai Clinical Outreach Laboratories, Spokane, Washington-based Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories, and Detroit Medical Center's outreach operation.

You see it in every major town and city. With 6,600 patient access points, Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (DGX) is one of the leading providers of patient diagnostics, laboratory testing, and genetic testing services in the United States. When you consider the importance of diagnostics in the medical field as well as testing services for a US labor force that faces pressure from drugs, Quest Diagnostics seems like a potentially lucrative investment opportunity.

Heightened awareness of the dangers of prescription opioids has prompted a movement to limit use of opioid therapies for patients with acute or chronic pain. Primary care practitioners stand on the front lines of this care shift, and many are curtailing prescribing opioids in response. But is the solution to the drug epidemic this straightforward? These latest data align with findings of an analysis of drug monitoring laboratory tests performed by Quest Diagnostics and published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine.

Quest Diagnostics Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer Steve Rusckowski led a group of dignitaries at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new flagship laboratory at the On3 campus earlier this month. With more than 1,100 employees expected to work at the new 250,000-square-foot facility when it opens in 2021, the lab, on the Clifton side of the ON3 campus redevelopment project, will be the company's largest.