Fixing Medicare Payment: Make it a Priority for Congress

Last year, Congress failed to fix flaws in how the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) pays for services reimbursed by the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS). As a result, the new year starts with a 2.8 percent cut in payment rates for pathology services. However, when inflation is considered, the reduction in payment for this year is more like 5.2 percent. 

Reforming how Medicare pays for pathology as well as clinical laboratory services should be priorities for this year’s Congress. 

2025 marks the fifth straight year that CMS has proposed cutting payment rates for pathology and other physician services. Moreover, because Congress hasn’t approved legislation permanently shielding the Medical Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, both of these fee schedules are suffering from destabilizing payment rates. Since 2001, PFS payment rates have fallen more than 26 percent while payment rates for clinical laboratory services have been cut or frozen in 18 of the previous 25 years.  

Poor reimbursement rates impact all pathology practices and clinical laboratories, impacting everything from staffing and training to what services patients can access. These cuts are not sustainable, and it is crucial that we send Congress the message that it must fix Medicare payment rates as soon as possible. 

ASCP is working closely with our advocacy partners to address these issues—including the American Medical Association and the American Clinical Laboratory Association to address CLFS issues. However, for these efforts to succeed, we need help from ASCP’s membership.  

ASCP has released an Action Alert asking its members to urge Congress to fix Medicare payment rates. We need ALL ASCP members, credential holders, and others, including your colleagues, to use the ASCP eAdvocacy Center to send Congress a message to Fix Medicare Payment Rates Now (click here). ASCP asks that you take five minutes to urge Congress to ensure that clinical laboratories and pathology practices can continue to provide outstanding patient care services.