OIG Issues New Report on Medicare 2023 Lab Spend

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXXII, No. 2 – January 27, 2025 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: When the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued its latest report on Medicare spending in 2023 for clinical laboratory tests, it attracted relatively little attention from the lab industry. Maybe other issues—such a…

Read More

---

Once Again, Congress Acts to Defer Medicare Lab Fee Cuts

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXXI, No. 14 – October 14, 2024 Issue

LAST MONTH, CONGRESS ONCE AGAIN DEFERRED MEDICARE REIMBURSEMENT CUTS OF UP TO 15% f…

Read More

---

Several Times, Feds Tried to ‘Redirect’ Lab Activities

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXXI, No. 8 – June 10, 2024 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Regulation of laboratory developed tests (LDTs) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may turn out to be one of the most impactful federal laws or regulations ever promulgated, so far as it pertains to clinical laboratories.cThe Dark Report provides this historical look b…

Read More

---

Year’s Top 10 Lab Stories Contain Surprises & Twists

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXX, Number 18 – December 26, 2023 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: With the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic now in the rearview mirror of the nation’s clinical labs and pathology groups, the important news stories of 2023 were mostly about developments where the consequences will influence laboratory operations in coming years. Artificial intelligence…

Read More

---

Congress Delays PAMA Fee Cuts, Passage of SALSA Act Is Goal

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXX, Number 18 – December 26, 2023 Issue

ONCE AGAIN, THE CLINICAL LABORATORY INDUSTRY DODGED THE MEDICARE FEE-CUT BULLET. Last month, Congress passed a bill that included a one-year reprieve to the impending PAMA reimbursement cuts that were scheduled to take place on January 1, 2024. The lab industry…

Read More

---

FDA’s Road to Regulation of Lab Developed Tests

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXX, No. 14 – October 2, 2023 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Today’s generation of clinical lab managers and pathologists should understand that the FDA’s efforts to publish a draft rule defining its authority to review laboratory developed tests (LD…

Read More

---

SALSA Bill Resurfaces, Poised to Reduce Upcoming PAMA Cuts

By Scott Wallask | From the Volume XXX, No. 14 – October 2, 2023 Issue

ANOTHER ROUND OF STIFF PRICE CUTS TO THE MEDICARE PART B CLINICAL LABORATORY FEE SCHEDULE (CLFS) is just months away, with the provisions of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) set to resume on Jan. 1. In…

Read More

---

No Surprises Act Sparks a Slew of Court Decisions

By Scott Wallask | From the Volume XXX, No. 13 – September 11, 2023 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Multiple lawsuits filed by the Texas Medical Association against the federal government have resulted in key decisions that affect provisions in the law. Qualifying payment amounts and …

Read More

---

PAMA Cuts Have Simply Been Kicked Down the Road

By R. Lewis Dark | From the Volume XXX, No. 1 – January 3, 2023 Issue

PAYMENT RATE CUTS FOR CLINICAL LABORATORY TESTS, called for under the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA), have been avoided temporarily—again.  A down-to-the-wire bill in Congress to keep the federal government funded into the new year in…

Read More

---

Congress Averts PAMA Cuts to Lab Test Rates for 2023

By Scott Wallask | From the Volume XXX, No. 1 – January 3, 2023 Issue

CONGRESS ENACTED LEGISLATION LAST MONTH that suspends implementation of the next round of price cuts to the Medicare Part B Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) that was scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1. This is a welcome development for the medical laboratory industry….

Read More

---