On Monday, the Senate passed legislation to reopen and fund the government, ending the longest shutdown in U.S. history. Included in the bill, “Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026,” are temporary delays to clinical laboratory price cuts and data reporting required under the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA).
The flawed PAMA legislation would cut the Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) payment rate up to 15 percent beginning January 1, 2026 for nearly 800 laboratory tests. Monday’s legislation extends the zero percent reduction to January 30, 2026, providing labs short-term relief. In addition, there will be no reporting period through January 31, 2026 with respect to clinical diagnostic laboratory tests. This short delay allows time for either another one-year postponement of PAMA (Congress has already postponed five times so far!) or permanent reform of the law through the proposed Reforming and Enhancing Sustainable Updates to Laboratory Testing Services (RESULTS) Act, which was introduced in September 2025.
As earlier reported in LABline, over 30 organizations connected to the clinical laboratory industry, including the American Clinical Laboratory Association, American Hospital Association, American Society for Clinical Pathology, Association for Molecular Pathology, College of American Pathologists, National Rural Health Association, among many others are in support of the House and Senate passing the RESULTS Act. This legislation would require CMS to contract with an independent, not-for-profit commercial claims database to establish payment rates for laboratory tests, extend the rate-setting cycle to every four years, and establish guardrails to limit annual payment reductions and prevent destabilizing cuts to CLFS rates.
