Under the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA), Congress changed the way Medicare determines rates for the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS), and the implementation of PAMA led to a significant cut for a majority of the routine tests physicians use every day to care for their patients.
To gather PAMA’s actual effects on physicians and their patients across the U.S., COLA created a survey, which can be found at NearPatientTestingMatters.org.
The short survey states that a physician coalition of the American Medical Association (AMA), American College of Physicians (ACP), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and other specialty societies will use this data to convey to Congress the seriousness of this issue and “how the 10 percent cut and future cuts will impact patients.” The coalition is working to show the benefits of near patient testing.
The new rates went into effect on January 1, 2018, and while first year’s cut was limited to 10 percent, the additional cuts will be phased-in over several years.
COLA also completed a study showing the importance of near patient testing to the elderly and medically frail at NearPatientTestingMatters.org. Here the study calls upon the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Congress to consider how the cuts from the new Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule will harm access to critical, rapid, life-saving clinical laboratory testing for Medicare beneficiaries, especially in rural communities.
COLA developed NearPatientTestingMatters.org to highlight the importance of clinical laboratory testing in a physician’s office for the prompt, diagnosis and treatment of acute care and the cost-effective management of chronic diseases. This portal has been instrumental in assisting stakeholders in their efforts to convey the value of near patient testing to everyday care and chronic disease management to members of Congress and regulators, as there is a continued push for a fix to the CLFS.
