Dec 4, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
Radiology and pathology associations are supporting a new bill in Congress to address self-referrals made by urologists
Criticism is mounting against urologists who refer their patients to radiation providers in which they have an ownership relationship. This criticism is strikingly similar to concerns that pathologists and others have expressed about situations where urologists refer their patients to anatomic pathology laboratories in which they have an ownership relationship.
Study about Radiation Therapy Referrals Published in NEJM (more…)
Mar 13, 2013 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Lots of controversy is associated with this new tax levy that was mandated by the Affordable Care Act
Will it be medical device manufacturers or their customers—including medical laboratories—who pay the new 2.3% medical device tax that became effective on January 1, 2013? That question is being asked by healthcare policymakers and experts, as well as pathologists and clinical laboratory administrators.
This new tax is mandated by the Affordable Care Act on medical device sales to healthcare providers. It taxes gross receipts of more than $5 million for manufacturers and importers of medical devices and is unpopular within the medical device industry, including in vitro diagnostics (IVD) manufacturers. (more…)
Nov 28, 2012 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Uncategorized
Unexpected opposition to EHR incentive program should be watched by pathologists and clinical laboratory managers
Questions about the value of the federal government’s program to encourage provider adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems were raised by Republican leaders in both houses of Congress just weeks before the election on November 6.
Because clinical laboratories and pathology groups have a big stake in interfacing their laboratory information systems to physicians’ EHRs, this new development bears watching.
In October, GOP Senators and House Republicans joined together and issued a call for an immediate halt to distribution of incentive payments to providers for implementing electronic health record (EHR) systems. This program is now in its second full year of implementation. (more…)
Feb 20, 2012 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement
A part of this legislation, the grandfather clause on Technical Component (TC) anatomic pathology services was extended through June 1, 2012.
Last Friday, clinical laboratories got bad news about new cuts to the Medicare Part B medical laboratory test fee schedule. Congress voted on a temporary funding fix to keep Medicare physician fees at current levels for 10 more months and a reduction in lab test fees was one source of the money that Congress used to fund this bill.
Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will be disappointed to learn that the Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) was cut by 2% when Congress voted on Friday, February 17, to approve a deal to extend the payroll tax cut for nine months. President Obama could sign the bill into law today (Monday, February 20). The cuts to lab test fees are estimated to total $2.7 billion over 10 years.
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Oct 19, 2011 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Nation’s clinical laboratories may see significant reductions in federal funding for medical laboratory tests in the 2012 federal budget
Unprecedented cuts in funding for clinical laboratory services are expected from Congress in coming months. That’s because federal legislators need deep cuts from many sources to cope with the current budget crisis. It is also why some Beltway insiders predict that fees for medical laboratory testing will be substantially reduced.
Although many lab industry associations have alerted their members to certain of these proposals—such as the proposed plan to reinstitute the patient co-pay/co-insurance requirement for Medicare Part B Medical Laboratory Tests—few clinical laboratory managers and pathologists know that there are at least three separate proposals to reduce funding for medical laboratory tests. Each proposal has a chance to make it through the legislative pipeline and become part of the final 2012 federal budget.
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