ASCP Seeks Extension of NGS NCD Comment Period

ASCP recently urged the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) to extend the comment period on the reconsideration of its National Coverage Determination on Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) for Medicare beneficiaries with advanced cancer. ASCP and other stakeholders urged CMS to develop a more robust coverage policy for NGS services. CMS’s current coverage policy for NGS denies coverage for stage 1 and 2 cancers. In response to criticism from ASCP and other stakeholders, CMS re-opened the coverage decision for public comment.

ASCP previously urged CMS to expand the NCD to provide coverage to all Medicare beneficiaries with cancer, regardless of its stage. In a letter to CMS on its initial draft coverage policy, ASCP argued that limiting CMS’s coverage to stage III and IV cancers potentially causes patient harm at a point in time when accurate diagnoses and treatments are most effective. ASCP will be following this issue closely and will be in touch with CMS to urge the Agency to provide broader coverage of these tests.

Other articles in ePolicy News June 2019

ASCP Presents on Laboratory Workforce at AAMC Annual Health Workforce Research Conference

ASCP Releases 2018 Vacancy Survey of Medical Laboratories Report

To read more articles from ePolicy News click here.

For more information regarding ASCP's advocacy initiatives and policy positions, please contact ASCP's Center for Public Policy at (202) 408-1110.

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