The Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) has asked the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to restore the Clinical Laboratory Improvements Advisory Committee (CLIAC).
ADLM sent the call to action in a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. calling the removal of the program “a move that could threaten the quality of clinical laboratory tests, which play a central role in diagnosing and treating conditions ranging from infectious diseases to cancer and cardiovascular disease.” ADLM said this could also delay diagnoses and treatment and the “modernization of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA).”
Additionally, ADLM says omitting CLIAC probably won’t save the government money.
ADLM’s president, Dr. Anthony Killeen, gave this statement in a press release: “While we acknowledge that creating an efficient healthcare and public health system is important, cutting CLIAC is not going to help achieve this goal,” said ADLM President Dr. Anthony Killeen. “We therefore call on HHS to reverse this decision and reinstate this invaluable federal advisory body. Given the crucial role that laboratory testing plays in medical decision-making, it is essential to maintain this public forum where government, medical and laboratory communities, and patients meet regularly to ensure that regulation of clinical laboratories enables innovative, patient-centered care.”
