Ways and Means members urge CMS to delay new fee schedule for clinical labs

Twenty-six members of the House Ways and Means Committee today urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to delay implementing a new Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, which was required by the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014. “Given that CMS has yet to issue a final rule to move the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule to a market-based payment methodology, we have serious concerns that the process will be improperly rushed in order to meet the existing Jan. 1, 2017 effective date,” the representatives wrote. “Updating the CLFS is a highly complex task with significant implications for all stakeholders, with a reach far beyond the Medicare program. We believe the critical alterations to the CLFS must be accomplished in a deliberate and measured manner, so that laboratories have sufficient time, once the final rule and sub-regulatory guidance are issued, to comply. Given the delays in the rulemaking process, the Jan. 1, 2017 effective date for the new CLFS payment methodology is not feasible and should be delayed.” In comments submitted to CMS in November, AHA urged the agency to delay the rule’s implementation by at least one year.