Laboratory Consolidation

While consolidation in our industry is nothing new—laboratories have long teamed up to combine resources and achieve economies of scale—market trends have accelerated the process. The ongoing consolidation is the result of owners retiring, going out of business, and selling to or merging with other laboratories and laboratory groups and networks. Consequently, our industry continues to shrink; currently there are about 7,000 labs in the U.S., down from 11,500 in 2005 (these figures include solo operations and in-house laboratories).