The CAP has asked a key health care committee in the Senate to make several changes to pandemic preparedness legislation to ensure laboratories can act swiftly to combat future public health emergencies.

First passed in 2006, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act is set to expire on September 30. The law’s authorities and programs serve as the country’s public health response, enabling the acceleration of medical public-private partnerships; a swift regulatory process to make tests, treatments, and vaccines available to Americans; and a strategic distribution and deployment of such medical products and supplies based on need. In March, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee asked for input in the form of a request for information from public health officials, health care providers, and other stakeholders on policies they should consider, improve upon, and address during the reauthorization of the law. Therefore, on July 10, the CAP sent a follow-up letter in response to the HELP Committee’s request for feedback on the draft.

The CAP believes this is important as laboratories continue to prepare for future pandemics. Additionally, the letter urged the committee to:

• Consider policies to standardize electronic laboratory reporting and authorize funding to enhance laboratory information systems. By establishing a uniform and standardized system for data sharing with public health agencies, Congress should ensure that burdens on data providers are manageable and streamlined given the critical role that such providers play during a public health emergency.
• Strengthen the supply chain. The committee should clarify that clinical laboratory testing capacity is a critical part of the supply chain during a public health emergency.
• Ensure a mechanism for adequate coverage and reimbursement of tests during a public health emergency. The reimbursement rates for COVID-19 tests ranged from $35 to $100, but those rates failed to account for the costs and resources necessary to bring testing online during the national public health crisis for laboratories of all sizes and localities. As a result, significant costs were incurred across the country as laboratories struggled with the crisis. The CAP called for established Medicare processes to determine clinical laboratory test prices are followed in the future and appropriate pricing is secured going forward.
• Authorize funding to strengthen the laboratory workforce. The CAP urged the committee to mitigate the laboratory workforce shortage by providing funding to increase the availability and capacity of accredited laboratory training programs, fund and expand eligibility for federal scholarship, fellowship, and loan repayment programs and utilize federal resources to raise the visibility of careers in laboratory medicine.
• Set Medicare reimbursement for clinical laboratory services on a sustainable path by adding the Saving Access to Laboratory Services Act (SALSA) to the reauthorization legislation as a permanent solution.

Read the CAP’s comments submitted to the Senate on July 10.