PLUGS Podcast
The PLUGS Podcast aims to empower healthcare providers, clinical laboratories, insurance plans, and patients by enhancing lab stewardship. Laboratory stewardship has five key improvement goals: 1) enhanced access to testing, 2) appropriate and accurate test ordering, 3) timely retrieval of test results, 4) correct result interpretation, and 5) financial alignment between patients, labs and payers. Financial alignment means that patients are protected from financial toxicity, labs are paid fairly, and insurance companies do not pay for wasteful test practices.
Through insightful discussions, expert guidance, and valuable resources, the PLUGS Podcast is dedicated to supporting all stakeholders in navigating the complexities of clinical lab stewardship, ultimately promoting both better patient outcomes and financial security.
PLUGS Podcast
Live from the PLUGS Summit: Egregious Overutilization, Maintaining the Lab’s Power, “Free” Testing; Stewardship Tips, and More
This version of the podcast was recorded live at the PLUGS Summit in Seattle Washington on April 4, 2025. As part of the Summit, we invited attendees to a PLUGS podcast recording on the second day of the Summit. The goal was to discuss issues raised at the Summit and answer questions from attendees. Our discussion covered a range of topics including fraud and other causes of egregious overutilization; maintaining the lab’s agency within a healthcare system; the good and evil of free testing; reference lab relationships; and hard and soft ways of enforcing stewardship policies. I was helped, as usual, by my colleague and stewardship expert, Dr. Geoff Baird, Chair of the University of Washington Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology.
PLUGS Website:
https://www.schplugs.org/
MTS Website
https://medtraining.org/