Starting next year, Northern Light Health will outsource diagnostic testing to Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX), a Secaucus, N.J.-based clinical lab with a national footprint, under an agreement announced Wednesday.
Quest’s state-of-the-art laboratory in Marlborough, Mass., will provide non-urgent advanced and routine clinical testing for physicians and patients now serviced by Northern Light Laboratory. In addition, a Quest rapid response lab in the Bangor area and select Northern Light Health hospital labs will perform tests requiring rapid results.
The companies said the move aims to broaden access to innovative, quality and cost-effective laboratory services for patients across Maine. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
“Diagnostic testing is a highly specialized and rapidly evolving area of medicine,” said Timothy J. Dentry, president and CEO of Northern Light Health. “By collaborating with Quest Diagnostics, the industry leader, Northern Light Health positions itself to deliver the highest level of diagnostic innovation, service and affordability while energizing our core focus on patient care.”
Northern Light Health is a Brewer-based integrated health care system comprising 10 member hospitals with 987 licensed beds; a single physician-led medical group; eight nursing homes with 585 long-term beds; five emergency transport members and 37 primary care locations. The company employs more than 12,000 people in Maine.
Under the agreement, Quest will acquire select assets of Northern Light Health’s outreach laboratory services business, named Northern Light Laboratory, in an all-cash transaction.
Quest will also provide professional laboratory management services for nine of Northern Light Health’s hospital laboratories, along with its cancer center laboratory at Northern Light Cancer Care in Brewer. Northern Light Health selected Quest Diagnostics following a competitive bid.
The deal, due to be completed in the first quarter of 2023, will enable physicians and patients throughout Maine to benefit from access to Quest’s industry-leading and highly innovative test menu, network of patient access sites throughout the state, broad health plan coverage and lower out-of-pocket costs for many services. Quest performs around 50 million tests a year at more than 2,250 locations nationwide, according to the company’s website.
The company offers more than 3,500 laboratory tests from allergy and asthma to cancer and chronic disease that patients can schedule and pay for online; it was not immediately clear what the procedure will be for Northern Light Health patients.