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- CAP and Laboratory Groups Demand Congress Stop Clinical Laboratory Payment Cuts
The CAP and 25 other organizations asked congressional leaders to protect payment for clinical laboratory services by supporting the bipartisan and bicameral Saving Access to Laboratory Services Act (SALSA). Citing adverse impacts on laboratories and patients, the CAP advocates for improvements to how the CMS collects laboratory data and stops next year’s 15% payment cut to more than 800 clinical laboratory tests.
In the September 8 letter, the coalition, led by the American Clinical Laboratory Association and including the American Medical Association, urged congressional leadership to pass the SALSA act as a solution that would set Medicare reimbursement for laboratory services. In addition, the SALSA act would provide the CMS power to collect private market data through statistically valid sampling from all laboratory segments for the widely available test services.
The SALSA legislation would also address the CAP’s concerns with clinical laboratory payment rates because of PAMA. Absent congressional intervention, laboratories face a 15% cut in January of 2023.
The CAP has long expressed concern about PAMA’s burdensome reporting requirements and the CMS’ failure to include such a large portion of the laboratory market in payment reporting, resulting in skewing PAMA payment rates.