AHA, others urge Congress to delay clinical laboratory payment cuts, reporting

Twenty-five organizations, including the AHA, today urged Congress to immediately extend the hold on payment cuts and the private payer data reporting period under the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule due to the continued COVID-19 public health emergency.

"While we are grateful that Congress delayed the implementation of CLFS cuts in 2021 as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, we urge you to extend this delay - for both the 2022 cuts and the next private payer data reporting period - as the Public Health Emergency has not ended, and laboratories must continue to respond," the organizations said in a letter to congressional leaders.

"As we approach the end of the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, our nation's clinical laboratories continue to work tirelessly on the front lines of the response. However, the flawed implementation of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) has resulted in drastic cuts to some of the most frequently ordered clinical laboratory tests. In just a few weeks, laboratories are scheduled to see cuts as large as 15% to some of the most common tests on their menus - basic clinical laboratory tests that are essential to the health and wellbeing of Americans."