On March 29, Congress introduced the bipartisan, bicameral Saving Access to Laboratory Services Act (SALSA; S. 1000/H.R. 2377), which would update Medicare’s payment system for clinical diagnostic laboratory services, protect patient access to critical laboratory services, and strengthen infrastructure in clinical laboratories. The bill was introduced by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Reps. Richard Hudson (R-NC), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Scott Peters (D-CA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), and Bill Pascrell (D-NJ). The CAP has long advocated that Congress protect payment for clinical laboratory services by supporting the bipartisan and bicameral Saving Access to Laboratory Services Act.

SALSA would address the CAP’s concerns with clinical laboratory payment rates that were put in place by the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) in 2014. SALSA will reduce the administrative burden on laboratories and ensure accurate collection of private market data through statistically valid sampling from all laboratory segments while avoiding drastic cuts to clinical laboratory payment rates. This will allow laboratories to focus on providing timely, high quality clinical laboratory services for patients, continuing to innovate, and building the infrastructure necessary to protect public health.

Congress has intervened on a bipartisan basis four times to delay the next Medicare clinical laboratory fee schedule (CLFS) reporting periods and three times to delay cuts to maintain access to lab services for patients. Absent congressional action, payment for about 800 tests will be cut up to 15 percent in January 2024.

Collectively, these cuts may threaten access to laboratory services, and they would come as clinical laboratories across the country face continued workforce shortages and inflationary pressure on costs.

The CAP has long expressed concern about PAMA’s burdensome reporting requirements and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ failure to include such a large portion of the laboratory market in payment reporting, resulting in skewed PAMA payment rates. Because of this, the CAP is happy to see SALSA reintroduced.