Pathologists’ Assistant Role Evolving

517 Words2 Pages

In 2007, the U.S faced the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The U.S housing bubble that forced many financial institutes and banks into bankruptcy is the main cause of this financial crisis. According to The Department of the Treasury, this recession lead to 8.8 million job losses between the years of 2007 and 2009. A study performed in 2009 by the United States Census Bureau, estimated that 48.6 million people in the U.S were uninsured. This was a great threat to the U.S economy, budgeting, and security. In order to offset the problem, the Affordable Care Act was passed on March 23, 2010. The main objective of this Act is to provide affordable quality health care to the uninsured, reduce overall healthcare costs, and to stop consumer discrimination related to preexisting medical conditions.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 32 million uninsured people will be insured by 2019. This will increase the volume of specimens and biopsies coming into pathology laboratories. Due to this increased volume, many large laboratories and hospitals will see a substantial increase in their revenue and hence increasing the demand for PAs. The low reimbursement rate of Affordable Care Act has forced many small labs to freeze hiring, lower salaries, and to even close. Furthermore, many small labs will lose business to larger labs further adding to the workload. This in turn may lead to a shift resulting in more PAs working in a much larger laboratory setting. It is the responsibility of these labs to evolve with the changes to make sure that the quality of the specimens and turnover time of frozen section specimens are not affected. Furthermore, we can anticipate an increase in physician visits due to Baby B...

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