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Medicare Part B
Medicare Part B medical insurance helps pay for some services and products not covered by Part A (hospital insurance) for Americans aged 65 and older who have worked and paid into the system. It also provides health insurance to younger people with disabilities.
Part B coverage begins once a patient meets his or her deductible ($147 in 2013), then typically Medicare covers 80% of approved services, while the remaining 20% is paid by the patient, either directly or indirectly by private Medigap insurance.
For clinical labs and pathology groups, Part B covers laboratory and diagnostic tests. Laboratory tests include certain blood tests, urinalysis, tests on tissue specimens, and some screening tests. They must be provided by a laboratory that meets Medicare requirements.
Complex rules are used to manage the benefit, and advisories are periodically issued which describe coverage criteria. On the national level these advisories are issued by CMS, and are known as National Coverage Determinations (NCD). Local Coverage Determinations (LCD) apply within the multi-state area managed by a specific regional Medicare Part B contractor, and Local Medical Review Policies (LMRP) were superseded by LCDs in 2003.
Medicare Part B payments make up about 15% of the revenue of the two biggest national lab companies. By contrast, it is common for community labs to have between 30% and 65% of their revenue come from Medicare Part B payments.
Part B coverage can also be provided by private insurers through Medicare Advantage Plans. Enrollment in private Medicare Advantage plans has more than doubled since 2006, according to the New York Times. As these plans gain popularity, clinical labs and pathology groups continue to find themselves without access to patients they once served. Medicare beneficiaries now enrolled in Advantage plans comprise nearly one-third of all Medicare beneficiaries.
Generally speaking, growth in Medicare Advantage enrollment favors the national labs, with private insurers providing them exclusive network contracts. This means less market access to these patients by community labs.
Should Labs File Court Challenge To PAMA Price Report Rule?
CEO SUMMARY: Just four weeks remain before CMS begins collecting private payer clinical laboratory test price data. Many lab industry executives have charged that Medicare officials are not following the language of the PAMA statute or the intent of Congress. At stake are $5.4 billion in …
Why Small Labs and Even Hospitals Are at Risk from PAMA Cuts
CEO SUMMARY: Clinical lab executives and experts who have studied the final rule for PAMA lab test market price reporting are seriously concerned that the design of this rule may put many of the nation’s smallest, but still essential, clinical labs at great risk of financial distress, i…
Test price data shows major difference between Medicare lab fee schedule and private payers
This is an excerpt from a 1,500-word article in the November 7 issue of THE DARK REPORT. The complete article is available for a limited time to all readers, and available at all times to paid members of the Dark Intelligence Group. CEO SUMMARY: THE DA…
Market Price Data Sample From: Independent Clinical Labs
Here is the market price data for independent clinical labs from XIFIN Inc. Lâle White, Founder and CEO of XIFIN, discusses the data with THE DARK REPORT. EDITOR: When XIFIN analyzed the actual private payer p…
Market Price Data Sample from: Hospital Labs with NPI Numbers
Here is the market price data for hospital labs with NPI numbers from XIFIN Inc. Lâle White, Founder and CEO of XIFIN, discusses the data with THE DARK REPORT. EDITOR: The analysis XIFIN has done of hospital …
10% PAMA Fee Cut Would Lower Medicare Pay to Laboratories by $400 Million
CEO SUMMARY: Just eight weeks remain before certain clinical laboratories must begin submitting private payer lab test price data to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. A new report …
XIFIN Analysis of Its Real Price Data Shows Hospital Lab Price Effect
CEO SUMMARY: In a new analysis of data its lab clients will use to report market prices to CMS, XIFIN Inc., reports private payers paid independent labs a weighted average price that was 19.6% less than what Medicare pays for 20 of its highest-volume tests. By contrast, private payers pa…
Cepheid, Sequenom Acquisitions Further Consolidate Lab Testing
TWO ACQUISITIONS FURTHER consolidated the clinical laboratory testing industry in recent weeks. The acquired companies were Sequenom and Cepheid. Sequenom went first. On July 27, Laboratory Corporation of America announced an agreement to acquire …
Reference Pricing’s New Lab Winners and Losers
CEO SUMMARY: Expanded use of reference pricing by employers in coming years could trigger a cycle of cuts to lab test prices that would put the most pressure on the lab companies with the highest prices. Many hospital labs are viewed as having high prices. But because they run outreach sp…
Alert to All Labs: Beware Of ‘Reference Pricing’
CEO SUMMARY: “Reference pricing” does not refer to how a lab negotiates prices with its reference lab! Rather, reference pricing describes a specific approach to health plan benefits that incentivizes the consumer to choose lower-cost providers while allowing that consumer to still us…
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