In response to a proposal in the President’s FY 2014 budget to implement a 1.75% cut to the Medicare Part B Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule every year through 2023, the Clinical Laboratory Coalition (CLC) sent a formal comment letter to the Senate Finance Committee on April 17, when the Committee was conducting a hearing on the President’s budget. Community clinical laboratories are extremely worried about the impact that this proposal—which would cut the fee schedule by 29% from 2010 levels—would have on their ability to continue to provide essential laboratory testing to Medicare patients.
Addressing Finance Committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and ranking member Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and copied to all Finance Committee members, the Coalition expressed “Such reductions gravely threaten laboratory providers’ ability to serve their communities, provide access to Medicare laboratory services, and be a vital partner in supporting health care providers in delivering appropriate, cost effective, and high quality health care services to the Medicare population.” The signatories, which included the National Independent Laboratory Association (NILA), the American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA), American Medical Technologists (AMT), American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS), the Clinical Laboratory Management Association (CLMA), and other stakeholders, continued: ”Such reductions gravely threaten laboratory providers’ ability to serve their communities, provide access to Medicare laboratory services, and be a vital partner in supporting health care providers in delivering appropriate, cost effective, and high quality health care services to the Medicare population.” Read the letter.
