FAQ’s
Does the bill I receive from the hospital include payment to the pathologist?
No, the bill you received from the hospital is purely a hospital charge and is referred to as the technical component of pathology. The technical component is used by the hospital to help pay nurses, technologist, and other hospital employees. In anatomic pathology, for example, the technical component pays for the preparation and staining of microscope slides from tissue sections selected by the pathologist for examination.
Technical components are also found in hospital bills from the departments of emergency medicine, radiology, and anesthesiology. These physicians bill separately for their professional medical services.
The bill from the pathologist is referred to as the professional component. The professional component is broken down into anatomic pathology and clinical pathology. The professional charges will vary depending upon the degree of complexity of the disease and the number of special diagnostic tests required to arrive at a diagnosis.
What is the Professional Component of services rendered in anatomic pathology?
This is the compensation the pathologist receives for looking at microscopic slides (biopsies, surgical resection specimens, pap smears and bone marrow). It is the pathologist who renders the final diagnosis.
What is the Professional Component of services rendered in clinical pathology?
This is compensation the pathologist receives for services performed in the clinical laboratory such as interpretation of sophisticated laboratory tests on samples of tissue or fluids from the patient. These tests help the patient’s physician guide a course of action: selection of drugs or other therapeutic measures, perhaps even surgical intervention.
Compensation for clinical pathology also includes quality assurance, evaluation, implementation, interpretation and clinical relevance of new laboratory tests (e.g. blood bank, blood chemistries, hematology, microbiology) as required by law and performed either by the pathologist or people under his/her supervision.
Who are pathologists?
Pathologists are physicians who have completed at least 5 years of additional training after medical school to become an expert in the use of laboratory tests to diagnose disease. They are members of the medical staff, like emergency department physicians, radiologists and anesthesiologists, that serve as patient advocates for optimal patient care. Examples of work pathologist do for patients are diagnosis of biopsies and interpretation of clinical tests such as those performed in the blood bank, chemistry, hematology, and microbiology laboratories. The patients physician and the pathologists consult together to provide the best patient care. Although you might not meet your pathologist face-to-face, they play an active role in your care.
