How the Latest Legislative Spending Bill Would Impact Medical Laboratories if Passed

Today’s Becker’s Hospital Review contains several healthcare takeaways in reaction to a $1.7 trillion omnibus appropriations bill put forward by lawmakers. If passed, the bill would fund the U.S. government through September of 2023. 

According to Becker’s article, the spending package includes all 12 annual appropriations bills that Congress must pass by end-of-day on December 23 to keep the government and key agencies and programs running. 

In the article, Molly Gamble takes a closer look at how the passage of this massive bill (over 4,000 pages) would directly affect healthcare providers. 

Congress' last-minute $1.7 trillion omnibus package: 8 healthcare takeaways

Perhaps most importantly for medical laboratories, the omnibus legislation would delay cuts and reporting linked to the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA) for another year. Reporting and cuts would delayed until January 1, 2024. 

For more info on the PAMA Act and its direct impact on medical laboratories, we encourage you to read this informative piece below from the College of American Pathologists.

Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) for Laboratories

In related news, the Verifying Accurate Leading-edge IVCT Development (VALID) Act, which would have established a new federal regulatory framework for laboratory-developed tests, was not included in the year-end omnibus package despite bipartisan support. 

Supporters of the act were in favor of the transfer of oversight from the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 

For more background on the VALID Act, you’re encouraged to review the two links below from Dark Daily and CAP Today. 

Looming Government Shutdown Opens Door for Congress to Possibly Pass Clinical Laboratory Bills

From the President’s Desk

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