TAG:
CMS
OIG Says Medicare Spending On Testing Increased in 2019
CEO SUMMARY: Newly-released data indicates that Medicare officials are falling far short of their goal to decrease the total amount of money spent annually on Part B clinical laboratory tests. That is one finding by the federal Office of the Inspector General in its report of Medica…
New Federal Rule: Non-Physician Providers Can Supervise Testing
SUMMARY: It’s the latest example of how interim rules issued earlier this year in response to the pandemic are being made permanent by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Issued on Dec. 2, this new final rule allows certain non-physician practitioners—includi…
One Genetic Test CPT Code Earns ‘Fraudomatic’ Title
CEO SUMMARY: Several genetic testing companies have noticed that some of the nation’s Medicare Administrative Contractors (MAC) pay about $2,000 for test claims billed with CPT code 81408. From 2018 through and 2019, the number of 81408 claims rose dramatically at just two of thes…
CMS Sends Cease/Desist Letters to Labs Lacking CLIA Certificates
CLINICAL LABORATORIES DOING COVID-19 TESTING and lacking the proper CLIA certificates to do so are receiving cease-and-desist letters from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The first letters were sent on Aug. 12 and le…
Palmetto GBA Tells Consultant to Take Down Test Price Data
CEO SUMMARY: Lawyers for Medicare contractor Palmetto GBA sent a cease and desist letter in September to a respected lab consultant, telling him to delete from his health policy blog a document containing Medicare genetic test price and coding data. In the letter, Quinn was directed…
Proposed Medicare 2021 PFS Cuts Pathology Fees by 9%
IF THE PROPOSED MEDICARE 2012 PHYSICIAN FEE SCHEDULE (PFS) RULE—published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Aug. 4—takes effect as currently written, pathology professional fees will be cut by 9%, effective Jan. 1, 2021. This was not…
Any Hope for Relief from PAMA Medicare Price Cuts?
It is a notable and rare success for the clinical laboratory profession to convince the House and Senate to pass a law that is favorable to the interests of patients and the clinical laboratories that serve them. Yet that is what happened when Congress passed the Laboratory Access for Beneficiarie…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXVIII, No. 1 – January 19, 2021
THE DARK REPORT HAS DiSCOVERED that 3 major health systems with 372 hospitals have switched to a different CLIA accreditation organization over the past 18 months. All the details are examined here, including reasons why a health system might make such a switch. Also in this issue is an exclusive newsmaker interview with the CEO of a new company that is challenging the 70-year-standard Coulter Principle technology in hematology.
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