As Filed Electronically with the Securities and Exchange Commission on
                                  June 19, 2002

                           Registration No. __________

                       SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
                             WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

                                    FORM S-8

                             REGISTRATION STATEMENT
                                      UNDER
                           THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

                   LABORATORY CORPORATION OF AMERICA HOLDINGS
             (Exact name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

        Delaware                                          13-3757370
        (State or Other Jurisdiction of                   (I.R.S. Employer
        Incorporation or Organization)                    Identification No.)

                              358 South Main Street
                        Burlington, North Carolina 27215
                                 (336) 229-1127
   (Address, including zip code, and Telephone Number, including area code of
                          Principal Executive Offices)

                   LABORATORY CORPORATION OF AMERICA HOLDINGS
                 AMENDED AND RESTATED 2000 STOCK INCENTIVE PLAN
                            (Full Title of the Plan)

                                Bradford T. Smith
          Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Secretary
                   Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings
                              358 South Main Street
                        Burlington, North Carolina 27215
                                 (336) 229-1127
 (Name, Address, including zip code, and Telephone Number, including area code,
                              of Agent for Service)

                         CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE



================================================================================================
     Title of                          Proposed Maximum     Proposed Maximum
    Securities            Amount           Offering             Aggregate          Amount of
       to Be               to Be            Price               Offering          Registration
    Registered          Registered*       Per Share**             Price               Fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                      
Common Stock             8,000,000         $47.30            $378,400,000         $34,812.80
($0.10 par value)
================================================================================================


     *    Plus an indeterminate number of additional shares which may be offered
and issued to prevent dilution resulting from stock splits, stock dividends or
similar transactions.

     **   Estimated solely for the purpose of calculating the registration fee
pursuant to Rule 457(h) under the Securities Act of 1933, based upon the average
of the high and low prices of the Registrant's Common Stock reported on the New
York Stock Exchange on June 14, 2002, which prices were $47.80 and $46.80,
respectively.



     This Registration Statement on Form S-8 relates to the registration of
additional securities relating to an employee benefit plan for which a
registration statement filed on Form S-8 (File No. 333-38608) was filed by the
Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 5, 2000. The
contents of the June 5, 2000 registration statement are incorporated herein by
this reference.

                                     PART I

                           INFORMATION REQUIRED IN THE
                            SECTION 10(a) PROSPECTUS

     The documents containing the information specified in Part I of Form S-8
(plan information and registrant information) will be sent or given to employees
as specified by Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 428(b)(1). Such
documents need not be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission either
as part of this Registration Statement or as prospectuses or prospectus
supplements pursuant to Rule 424. These documents, which include the statement
of availability required by Item 2 of Form S-8, and the documents incorporated
by reference in this Registration Statement pursuant to Item 3 of Form S-8 (Part
II hereof), taken together, constitute a prospectus that meets the requirement
of Section 10(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities
Act").

                                     PART II

                     INFORMATION NOT REQUIRED IN PROSPECTUS

Item 3.  Incorporation of Documents by Reference.

     The Securities and Exchange Commission allows us to "incorporate by
reference" the information we file with them, which means that we can disclose
important information to you by referring to those documents. The information
incorporated by reference is considered to be part of this Registration
Statement, and information that we file later with the Securities and Exchange
Commission will automatically update and supersede this information. Laboratory
Corporation of America Holdings (the "Company," and sometimes referred to herein
as the "Registrant") incorporates by reference the documents listed below and
any future filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission under
Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended (the "Exchange Act"):

               (i)    The Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal
                      year ended December 31, 2001 (File No.1-11353);

               (ii)   The Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal
                      quarter ended March 31, 2002;

               (iii)  The Company's Definitive Proxy Statement dated April 15,
                      2002;

               (iv)   The Company's Current Reports on Form 8-K filed January 7,
                      2002, January 16, 2002, January 28, 2002, February 5,
                      2002, February 13, 2002, February 13, 2002, February 22,
                      2002, February 26, 2002, March 6, 2002, March 12, 2002,
                      March 12, 2002, March 20, 2002, April 3, 2002, April 15,
                      2002, April 22, 2002, April 22, 2002, April 23, 2002, May
                      6, 2002, May 9, 2002, May 9, 2002, May 9, 2002, June 5,
                      2002, June 7, 2002, and June 11, 2002; and

               (v)    The description of the Company's Common Stock in the
                      Company's Registration Statement on Form 8-B (as amended
                      by Amendment No. 1 thereto dated April 27, 1995) filed on
                      July 1, 1994 under the Exchange Act, including amendments
                      thereto and any report filed for the purpose of updating
                      such description).

     All documents subsequently filed by the Registrant pursuant to Sections
13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, prior to the filing of a
post-effective amendment which indicates that all securities offered hereby have
been sold or which deregisters all securities then remaining unsold, shall be
deemed to be incorporated by reference into this Registration Statement and to
be a part hereof from the date of filing of such documents.

     Any statement contained herein or in a document, all or a portion of which
is incorporated or deemed to be incorporated by reference herein, shall be
deemed to be modified or superseded for purposes of this Registration

                                      II-1



Statement to the extent that a statement contained herein or in any other
subsequently filed document which also is or is deemed to be incorporated by
reference herein modifies or supersedes such statement. Any such statement so
modified or superseded shall not be deemed, except as so modified or amended, to
constitute a part of this Registration Statement.

Item 5.  Interests of Named Experts and Counsel

     Bradford T. Smith, who has issued the opinion of the Company's Law
Department on the legality of the common stock of the Company offered hereby, is
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Secretary of the Company. Mr.
Smith owns Company Common Stock and restricted Company Common Stock. He also
holds employee stock options to purchase Company Common Stock.

Item 6.  Indemnification of Officers and Directors

     As authorized by Section 145 of the General Corporation Law of the State of
Delaware ("Delaware Corporation Law"), each director and officer of the Company
may be indemnified by the Company against expenses (including attorney's fees,
judgments, fines, and amounts paid in settlement) actually and reasonably
incurred in connection with the defense or settlement of any threatened,
pending, or completed legal proceedings in which he/she is involved by reason of
the fact that he/she is or was a director or officer of the Company; provided
that he/she acted in good faith and in a manner that he/she reasonably believed
to be in or not opposed to the best interest of the Company; and, with respect
to any criminal action or proceeding, that he/she had no reasonable cause to
believe that his/her conduct was unlawful. If the legal proceeding, however, is
by or in the right of the Company, the director or officer may not be
indemnified in respect of any claim, issue, or matter as to which he shall have
adjudged to be liable for negligence or misconduct in the performance of his
duty to the Company unless a court determines otherwise.

     Section 102(b)(7) of the Delaware Corporation Law provides that a
corporation may eliminate or limit the personal liability of a director to the
corporation or its stockholders for monetary damages for breach of fiduciary
duty as a director, provided that such provision shall not eliminate or limit
the liability of a director (i) for any breach of the director's duty of loyalty
to the corporation or its stockholders, (ii) for acts or omissions not in good
faith or which involve intentional misconduct or a knowing violation of law,
(iii) for willful or negligent conduct in paying dividends or repurchasing stock
out of other than lawfully available funds, or (iv) for any transaction from
which the director derived an improper personal benefit. No such provision shall
eliminate or limit the liability of a director for any act or omission occurring
prior to the date when such provision becomes effective.

     Article Six of the Certificate of Incorporation of the Company provides
that no director of the Company shall be personally liable to the Company or its
stockholders for monetary damages for any breach of his fiduciary duty as
director; provided, however, that such clause shall not apply to any liability
of a director (i) for any breach of such director's duty of loyalty to the
Company or its stockholders, (ii) for acts or omissions not in good faith or
which involve intentional misconduct or a knowing violation of law, (iii)
pursuant to Section 174 of the Delaware Corporation Law or (iv) for any
transaction from which the director derived an improper personal benefit. In
addition, the provisions of Article VII of the Company's By-Laws provide that
the Company shall indemnify persons entitled to be indemnified to the fullest
extent permitted by the Delaware Corporation Law.

     The Company maintains policies of officers' and directors' liability
insurance in respect of acts or omissions of current and former officers and
directors of the Company, its subsidiaries, and "constituent" companies that
have been merged with the Company.

Item 8.  Exhibits

Exhibit
Number              Description

4.1                 Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings Amended and
                    Restated 2000 Stock Incentive Plan

4.2                 Form of Non-qualified Stock Option Agreement pursuant to the
                    Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings Amended and
                    Restated 2000 Stock Incentive Plan (included in Exhibit 4.1
                    to this Registration Statement)

5.1                 Opinion of Counsel regarding the legality of securities
                    registered

                                      II-2



23.1          Consent of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

23.2          Consent of Counsel (included in Exhibit 5.1 to this Registration
              Statement)

24.1          Power of Attorney (included on the signature page to this
              Registration Statement)

Item 9.  Undertakings

         (a)   The undersigned Registrant hereby undertakes:

               (1)  To file, during any period in which offers or sales are
                    being made, a post-effective amendment to this Registration
                    Statement:

                    (i)    To include any prospectus required by Section
                           10(a)(3) of the Securities Act of 1933;

                    (ii)   To reflect in the prospectus any facts or events
                           arising after the effective date of the Registration
                           Statement (or the most recent post-effective
                           amendment thereof) which, individually or in the
                           aggregate, represent a fundamental change in the
                           information set forth in the Registration Statement.
                           Notwithstanding the foregoing, any increase or
                           decrease in the volume of securities offered (if the
                           total dollar value of securities offered would not
                           exceed that which was registered), any deviation from
                           the low or high end of the estimated maximum offering
                           range may be reflected in the form of prospectus
                           filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission
                           pursuant to Rule 424(b) if, in the aggregate, the
                           changes in volume and price represent no more than 20
                           percent change in the maximum aggregate offering
                           price set forth in the "Calculation of Registration
                           Fee" table in the effective registration statement;
                           and

                    (iii)  To include any material information with respect to
                           the plan of distribution not previously disclosed in
                           the Registration Statement or any material change to
                           such information in the Registration Statement;

Provided, however, that paragraphs (a)(1)(i) and (a)(1)(ii) do not apply if the
registration statement is on Form S-3, Form S-8, or Form F-3, and the
information required to be included in a post-effective amendment by those
paragraphs is contained in periodic reports filed with or furnished to the
Securities and Exchange Commission by the Registrant pursuant to Section 13 or
Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are incorporated by
reference in the Registration Statement;

               (2)  That, for the purpose of determining any liability under the
                    Securities Act of 1933, each such post-effective amendment
                    shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating
                    to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such
                    securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial
                    bona fide offering thereof; and

               (3)  To remove from registration by means of a post-effective
                    amendment any of the securities being registered which
                    remain unsold at the termination of the offering.

          (b)  The undersigned Registrant hereby undertakes that, for the
               purposes of determining any liability under the Securities Act of
               1933, each filing of the Registrant's annual report pursuant to
               Section 13(a) or Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of
               1934 (and, where applicable, each filing of an employee benefit
               plan's annual report pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Securities
               Exchange Act of 1934) that is incorporated by reference in the
               Registration Statement shall be deemed to be a new registration
               statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the
               offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be
               the initial bona fide offering thereof; and

          (c)  Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the
               Securities Act of 1933 may be permitted to directors, officers
               and controlling persons of the Registrant pursuant to the
               foregoing provisions, or otherwise, the Registrant has been
               advised that in the opinion of the Securities and Exchange
               Commission such indemnification is against public policy as
               expressed in the Securities Act of 1933 and is, therefore,
               unenforceable. In the event that a claim for indemnification
               against such liabilities (other than the payment by the
               Registrant of expenses incurred or paid by a director, officer or
               controlling person of the Registrant in the successful defense of
               any action, suit

                                      II-3



               or proceeding) is asserted by such director, officer or
               controlling person in connection with the securities being
               registered, the Registrant will, unless in the opinion of its
               counsel the matter has been settled by controlling precedent,
               submit to a court of appropriate jurisdiction the question
               whether such indemnification by it is against public policy as
               expressed in the Securities Act of 1933 and will be governed by
               the final adjudication of such issue.

                                      II-4



                                   SIGNATURES

     Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, the Registrant
certifies that it has reasonable grounds to believe that it meets all of the
requirements for filing on Form S-8 and has duly caused this Registration
Statement to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly
authorized, in the City of Burlington, State of North Carolina, on this 17th day
of June, 2002.

                                LABORATORY CORPORATION OF AMERICA HOLDINGS

                                By: /s/ Bradford T. Smith
                                   ---------------------------------------------
                                    Bradford T. Smith
                                    Executive Vice President, Chief Legal
                                    Officer and Secretary

                                POWER OF ATTORNEY

     We, the undersigned directors and officers of Laboratory Corporation of
America Holdings, do hereby constitute and appoint Mr. Bradford T. Smith with
full power of substitution, our true and lawful attorney-in-fact and agent to do
any and all acts and things in our names and in our behalf in our capacities
stated below, which acts and things as he may deem necessary or advisable to
enable Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings to comply with the Securities
Act of 1933, and any rules, regulations and requirements of the Securities and
Exchange Commission, in connection with this Registration Statement, including
specifically, but not limited to, power and authority to sign for any and all of
us in our names, in the capacities stated below, any and all amendments
(including post-effective amendments) hereto and any subsequent registration
statement filed pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act of 1933, and to
file the same, with all exhibits thereto, and other documents in connection
therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission; and we do hereby ratify
and confirm all that he shall do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.

     Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, this
Registration Statement has been signed below by the following persons in the
capacities and on the dates indicated.



Signature                                Title                                               Date
                                                                                       
  /s/ Thomas P. Mac Mahon                President, Chief Executive Officer                  June 17, 2002
-----------------------------------
      Thomas P. Mac Mahon                Chairman of the Board and Director
                                         (principal executive officer)

  /s/ Wesley R. Elingburg                Executive Vice President, Chief                     June 17, 2002
-----------------------------------
      Wesley R. Elingburg                Financial Officer and Treasurer
                                         (principal accounting and financial officer)

___________________________________      Director
      Jean-Luc Belingard

  /s/ Wendy E. Lane                      Director                                            June 17, 2002
-----------------------------------
      Wendy E. Lane

  /s/ Robert E. Mittelstaedt, Jr.        Director                                            June 17, 2002
-----------------------------------
      Robert E. Mittelstaedt, Jr.

  /s/ James B. Powell, M.D.              Director                                            June 17, 2002
-----------------------------------
      James B. Powell, M.D.

___________________________________      Director
      David B. Skinner, M.D.

  /s/ Andrew G. Wallace, M.D.            Director                                            June 17, 2002
-----------------------------------
      Andrew G. Wallace, M.D.


                                      II-5



                                INDEX TO EXHIBITS

Exhibit No.     Description

4.1             Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings Amended and Restated
                2000 Stock Incentive Plan

4.2             Form of Non-qualified Stock Option Agreement pursuant to the
                Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings Amended and Restated
                2000 Stock Incentive Plan (included in Exhibit 4.1 to this
                Registration Statement)

5.1             Opinion of Counsel regarding the legality of securities
                registered

23.1            Consent of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

23.2            Consent of Counsel (included in Exhibit 5.1 to this Registration
                Statement)

24.1            Power of Attorney (included on the signature page to this
                Registration Statement)

                                      II-6