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Medicare Administrative Contractor
April 28, 2014 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
In recent years, a series of decisions involving molecular diagnostics tests made by Medicare officials and the Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) have caused much disruption in the clinical laboratory industry. In response to these developments, on April 16, the California Clinical L…
Congress’ New SGR Law Has Mixed News for Labs
CEO SUMMARY: Once again, the lab industry faces a mixed bag following passage of a new law by Congress last week. Besides the one-year fix for the SGR, H.R. 4302 also has language that may defer adjustments to Medicare Part B lab test fees until 2017 and creates a new procedure for Medica…
Anatomic Pathology Business Faces Uncertain Future
CEO SUMMARY: There’s a day of reckoning on the way for the traditional business model of the private pathology group practice. At most risk are smaller pathology groups that typically have five or fewer pathologists. Blame it on the reduced prices that Medicare and private insurers are …
CMS Cuts BRCA Price by 49% in Response to Competition
IN THE FINAL WEEKS OF 2013, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it would reduce the price it pays for the BRCA genetic test by 49%, to $1,438, effective on January 1, 2014. For Myriad Genetics, Inc., this wa…
2013’s Top Ten Lab Stories Point to Tougher Times
CEO SUMMARY: For 2013, the big story was money—or, more accurately, less money for providers. This was not limited to clinical labs and pathology groups, but was equally true of hospitals and physicians. In THE DARK REPORT’S annual lookback at the year’s 10…
House Bill Introduced to Address Rate-Setting for Molecular Tests
FEW PATHOLOGISTS OR CLINICAL laboratory directors would argue against revising the current Medicare payment policies for molecular and genetic tests. A bill proposed in Congress would do just that. The process now in use by Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) is inefficient and opaque, accord…
Medicare Contractor’s Ruling on MolDx Test Causes Lab to Close
CEO SUMMARY: On May 14, Predictive Biosciences learned that its Medicare contractor had determined that one of its three molecular tests for bladder cancer was a screening test. It also never got a determination on its other two molecular tests. Because Medicare is half of the lab’s pay…
Report Shows Price Drop for Most Molecular Tests
CEO SUMMARY: In recent weeks, labs are reporting that Medicare contractors have begun to issue payments for molecular test claims filed—but unpaid—since January 1, 2013. A newly-issued analysis of this situation by Quorum Consulting indicates that, for many molecular assays, Medicare …
Big Lab Industry Stories Reveal Trouble Ahead
CEO SUMMARY: One after another, a series of breaking news stories points to more rough waters ahead for the entire clinical lab industry. Of greatest interest is the ongoing questions about when clinical labs and pathology groups will get paid for the molecular test claims they have submi…
Labs Have New Hurdles as Some Payments Start
CEO SUMMARY: Some payments are beginning to flow for claims submitted under the new molecular test CPT codes. But there is a new issue. Medicare contractors, Medicaid programs, and private health insurers are deeming certain molecular tests to be medically unnecessary. Th…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 6 – April 21, 2025
Now that a federal judge has vacated the FDA’s LDT rule, The Dark Report analyzes the judgement and notes the various steps the FDA could take in response. Also, lab testing at pharmacies is proving to be less successful than was once anticipated.
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