Legislation Introduced in House to Consider PAMA’s Flaws

The Laboratory Access for Beneficiaries (LAB) Act, H.R. 3584, was introduced June 27 by U.S. Representatives Scott Peters (D-CA), Michael Bilirakis (R-FL), William Pascrell (D-NJ), Kurt Schrader (D-OR), George Holding (R-NC), and Richard Hudson (R-NC). The laboratory community is hoping that the legislation will be a major step toward comprehensive reform of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA). The new legislation would delay PAMA’s upcoming data reporting period by one year to ensure applicable laboratories have sufficient time to report data. The measure also requires the National Academy of Medicine to provide recommendations to Congress on how to reduce the data reporting burden and how to ensure more representative payment rates.

In 2014, Congress passed PAMA, which included provisions (Section 216) directing the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish market-based rates for clinical laboratories. Instead, when HHS implemented the new requirement, it relied almost exclusively on pricing and volume data from large reference laboratories and thereby ignored Congress’s instructions to create a market-based payment system. The important new measure is being championed by the American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA) and the National Independent Laboratory Association (NILA). ASCP plans to work in coordination with ACLA, NILA and other laboratory organizations in pursuit of reforms that provide more reasonable payment rates for clinical laboratories.

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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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