Taken from: ASCLS-Region-V-General-Membership e-mail
A new report commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests transforming the way you get paid for lab services, citing inefficiencies in the current system.
The report, titled Laboratory Medicine: A National Status Report, provides a detailed overview of key factors affecting labs, including the value of laboratory medicine, profile of the lab market sector, including POLs, workforce, quality systems and performance measurement, laboratory information systems, and federal oversight of labs.
“CDC has commissioned this report, among others, to lay the groundwork for transforming laboratory medicine over the next decade,” the introduction states.
The chapter on lab reimbursement points out shortcomings in the current payment system. “The complexity and inefficiency resulting from use of 56 different fee schedules was cited as a major problem in the 2000 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report. The administrative value of the original fee schedule system has been greatly diminished since many of the individual test fees on the schedules are now close to the [National Limitation Amount],” it states.
The report emphasizes inconsistencies in the current fee schedule which have posed problems for many laboratorians.
“Because the original allowable payments set in 1983 were not linked to laboratories’ relative costs associated with performing tests or adjusted for inflation, some fees are most likely low relative to costs while others may be high,” the report notes. “Such payment variations are arbitrary, and payment disparities for new tests that are integrated
into the existing system often are compounded by other preexisting variations.”
The chapter concludes by calling for a thorough redesign of the current Medicare payment system for laboratory services.
The Lewin Group and Battelle Memorial Institute drafted the report at the request of the CDC.
To read the (IOM) report or download a copy... report has been placed on our ASCLS Region V website. This reference is >300 pages but copy has been bookmarked for your easy access to the information that interests you.
You may also find other chapters in this document of interest: