Biography
Biography: James Joseph Navin
Abstract
Commercial labs set a pattern of low payment for Pap smears. They allowed clinicians to bill for the Paps as long as they sent the other work to the lab. This led to a marked reduction in payment to other labs which did Paps and resulted in Pap smears becoming a money losing test for the other labs. Insurance companies and Medicare lowered their payment as well. This produced financial problems for many labs. Some lived with the problem others began to reduce costs by screening faster, not using cytotechs and other ventures that greatly reduced quality. Upon recognizing the problem we began to fix it. We first went after local payors and when that was fixed we went after the Federal Govt. the following is the story of what transpired. It encompasses about 4 years of work which included going to DC every month sometime 3-4 times to meet with the players. Honolulu, by the way is not very close to DC