Oct 19, 2011 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Nation’s clinical laboratories may see significant reductions in federal funding for medical laboratory tests in the 2012 federal budget
Unprecedented cuts in funding for clinical laboratory services are expected from Congress in coming months. That’s because federal legislators need deep cuts from many sources to cope with the current budget crisis. It is also why some Beltway insiders predict that fees for medical laboratory testing will be substantially reduced.
Although many lab industry associations have alerted their members to certain of these proposals—such as the proposed plan to reinstitute the patient co-pay/co-insurance requirement for Medicare Part B Medical Laboratory Tests—few clinical laboratory managers and pathologists know that there are at least three separate proposals to reduce funding for medical laboratory tests. Each proposal has a chance to make it through the legislative pipeline and become part of the final 2012 federal budget.
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Jul 15, 2011 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement
Document leak earlier this week pulls curtain back on potential cuts to Medicare/Medicaid spending
Spending cuts of between $334 billion and $353 billion over the next 10 years are on the table in the negotiations over the federal debt ceiling. The bad news for the clinical laboratory industry is that restoration of the Medicare patient co-pay for medical laboratory tests is not only on the list of proposed spending cuts, but represents a significant chunk of money—as much as $16 billion during the next decade!
Typical of beltway politics, it was only because of a leak that the list of proposed Medicare and Medicaid spending cuts became public knowledge. On Tuesday this week, Kaiser Health News was one of the first to report the leak of the documents. It also posted a copy of the briefing documents on its website.
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Jul 1, 2011 | Laboratory Pathology
Proposed repeal rule was published in yesterday’s Federal Register
Yesterday, pathologists and clinical laboratory managers got an early Fourth of July present. That’s because the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published the proposed rule that repeals the requirement that paper requisitions for medical laboratory tests must have the physician’s signature.
This rule had been mandated by the 2011 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Rule that was to take effect on January 1, 2011. In response to the negative response to this rule from important sectors of healthcare, including laboratory medicine professionals, hospital groups, and physician associations, as well as both Houses of Congress, CMS deferred implementation of the rule for the first 90 days of 2011. (See Dark Daily, “Good News for Clinical Laboratories as CMS Delays Physician’s Signature Requirement, December 22, 2010.”
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Feb 14, 2011 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement
CMS says it will take steps to rescind the final rule before its scheduled implementation on April 1, 2011
Clinical laboratories and pathology groups will welcome the news that the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will take steps to rescind the final rule that requires the physician’s signature be on all paper requisitions for medical laboratory tests ordered on behalf of Medicare patients. It means that implementation of the rule—now scheduled to become effective on April 1, 2011—will not happen if CMS officials act in a timely manner.
Dark Daily has learned that last Friday a conference call took place involving Jonathan Blum, Director of the Center for Medicare Management, and representatives from the American Association of Bioanalysts (AAB) and the American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA). During the conference call, Blum disclosed that a decision had been reached within CMS to rescind the final rule that would require physicians’ signatures on paper requisitions for medical laboratory tests. Apparently, CMS intends to take the steps necessary to rescind this final rule before its effective date of April 1, 2011.
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Dec 22, 2010 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement
Medicare Program Won’t Enforce the New Rule For At Least 90 Days
Yesterday brought welcome news for all clinical laboratories and pathology group practices in the United States. That’s because the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) posted an announcement on its website that it would delay enforcement of the final rule requiring that physician’s signatures be on all paper requisitions for Medicare patients starting January 1, 2011. This includes laboratory test requisitions.
This rule was part of the Final Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Rule published in the Federal Register on November 29, 2010. In short, once enacted, the rule will require all paper requisitions sent to Medicare to have a doctor’s signature to be reimbursed. (more…)
