Are Labs to Blame for a $1,000 Pap Smear?

Arecent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine about a “$1,000 Pap smear” has generated a great deal of discussion in the laboratory community. The Oct. 17 editorial, written by Cheryl Bettigole, M.D., a New Jersey-based family practitioner, states that laboratories sometimes charge her patients $1,000 or more for a Pap smear that until…