Laboratory Decision System, Much Needed Platform to Automate Laboratory Test Utilization, Medical Necessity Verification and Payment Processing (Preprint)

Abstract

Physicians could improve the efficiency of the healthcare system if a reliable resource was available to aid them in better understanding, selecting, and interpreting the diagnostic laboratory tests [1]. It has been well established and widely recognized that (a) laboratory testing provides 70-85% of the objective data that physicians use in diagnosis and treatment of their patients, (b) orders for laboratory tests in the U.S. have increased with an estimated volume of 4–5 billion tests per year , (c) there is a lack of user friendly tools to guide physicians in their test selection and ordering, and (d) laboratory test overutilization and underutilization continue to represent a pervasive source of inefficiency in healthcare system.