Jan 9, 2017 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
As of January 1, CMS has begun accepting private payer market price data from certain medical laboratories required to report this information
Only 12 months remain before clinical laboratories in the United States face the ticking financial time bomb set to explode on January 1, 2018. That time bomb is the cuts to Medicare Part B clinical laboratory test fees that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will implement on that date.
The Dark Report, Dark Daily’s sister publication, predicts that the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA) private payer market price reporting final rule—if implemented by CMS as currently written—has the potential to be the single most financially disruptive event to hit the clinical laboratory industry during the past 25 years. At greatest risk are the nation’s smaller community laboratories and rural hospitals that rely on revenue from Medicare Part B lab testing to remain financially viable. (more…)
May 5, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
“Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014” requires most medical laboratories to report market data and allows Medicare officials cut prices of Part B lab tests beginning in 2017
NEW ORLEANS, LA—No single development in the clinical laboratory industry grabbed more attention last week at the Executive War College than news that a new federal law gives Medicare officials the ability to reduce prices of individual medical laboratory tests by as much as 75% between 2017 and 2022.
This law is titled the “Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014” (PAMA). Congress passed this legislation to patch the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula until April 2015. (more…)
May 2, 2014 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
Medical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups are scrambling to respond as healthcare evolves into new models of integrated clinical care and payers seek to reduce reimbursement for clinical lab tests
NEW ORLEANS, LA.—There was more bad news than good news for the 800 clinical laboratory professionals and pathologists who assembled this week in “The Big Easy” to discuss and debate the serious financial and clinical challenges now weighing down the entire profession of laboratory medicine in the United States.
Probably the most unwelcome news delivered to attendees at the 19th Annual Executive War College on Laboratory and Pathology Management, was the contents of the new law titled the “Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014” (PAMA). This was the legislation passed by Congress to patch the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula for one more year. It was signed into law by President Obama on April 1, 2014. (more…)