Media Coverage

The giant inflatable colon stolen from a Kansas City nonprofit last year will soon have a name. Quest Diagnostics and the Colon Cancer Coalition are hosting a naming ceremony Friday, March 1 at noon. Police said last year, thanks to a tip, officers found it in a vacant house near Virginia Avenue and Gregory Boulevard.

Roughly a year after its launch, a pilot project exploring the use of blockchain to manage healthcare provider records is paying off. The effort, which has thus far focused on some 100,000 provider locations across Texas, has produced substantial efficiencies for participating firms, said Jason O'Meara, senior director of architecture at Quest Diagnostics, one of the seven companies comprising the Synaptic Health Alliance, the healthcare industry group leading the project.

Quest Diagnostics said this week that its board has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $.53 per share, payable on April 22 to shareholders of record on April 8. Laboratory Corporation of America recorded net restructuring charges of $48.1 million related to severance and other personnel costs, and integration activities in 2018, it reported in its Form 10K to the US Securities and Exchange Commission this week.

Quest Diagnostics combined its chief information and digital officers into one role and named Gabrielle Wolfson, former Xerox Corp. CIO, to the role in February, according to The Wall Street Journal. Ms. Wolfson comes to Quest with experience managing the technology infrastructure and digital business at Xerox, according to the report. Former Quest Diagnostics CIO Lidia Fonseca left the role last year to take a position as chief digital officer at Pfizer.

Gov. Phil Murphy will reveal a state budget Tuesday that reduces spending on health care for New Jersey’s government workers by $800 million, alleviating at least some pressure on the state to hike major taxes this year, NJ Advance Media has learned. Murphy expects to save $61 million by auditing the insurance rolls and rooting out ineligible dependents, $7.9 million by auditing claims processed by the current pharmacy benefits manager, and $12.5 million by shifting Quest Diagnostics, the popular diagnostic lab, in network, among other changes, including rebidding the state’s contract for a pharmacy benefits manager.

Many of us remember the case of the missing giant inflatable colon. It was a mystery that kept Kansas City residents on the edge of their seats for a dozen days. With the #StolenColon hashtag going viral, many jokes and demands for answers were made all across social media. Now, with Friday marking the start of Colon Cancer Awareness Month, the stolon colon is back to work.

Quest Diagnostics said today it has entered a partnership agreement with Regional Medical Center of Orangeburg, South Carolina.[CR-LF][CR-LF]Under the agreement, Quest will provide RMC with full laboratory management services, including management, equipment, reference testing, supplies, and procurement services.

The cost of healthcare in the U.S. is skyrocketing and employers and lawmakers must play a larger role to reduce the burden on Americans. So far, they aren’t doing enough, experts say. “Vitamin D screenings were in a typical bundle of laboratory services that are already provided,” she said. “[It’s] talking directly to LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics, saying ‘take this off your bundle, it’s no longer needed.’”

Marijuana may be legal now in Michigan, but many employees are likely to face strict workplace policies and still run the risk of being fired. That's partly because the federal government still considers marijuana to be a controlled substance. But whether they do business with Washington, employers face a legal landscape of complicated interactions with their workers. According to the 2017 annual report from Quest Diagnostics, two percent of the drug tests they analyzed nationally tested positive for marijuana.

While cities like New York have cracked down on CBD in food and drinks, that is not case in Kansas City. But how much of it people consume is important and could have an impact on whether or not they land their next job. However, lab-testing company, Quest Diagnostics, wrote in a blog post earlier this month:[CR-LF][CR-LF]"If the CBD product contains THC at a sufficiently high concentration, it is possible, depending on usage patterns, that the use of these products could cause a positive urine drug test result"