The next wave of federal COVID-19 relief legislation is in the works and the lab industry is doing its level best to ensure that it includes the necessary support for lab testing that the previously … [Read more...]
COVID-19 Politics & Lab Testing
$3 Trillion HEROES Stimulus Bill Clears House Will Die in Senate
May 20, 2020
On May 15, the U.S. House of Representatives passed, by a vote of 208 to 199, a new $3 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill that includes $75 billion to support diagnostic testing and contact tracing … [Read more...]
PAMA
COVID-19 Relief Bill Defers 2021 Medicare Part B Lab Test Price Cuts for One Year
April 14, 2020
The $2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act), provides for free coronavirus testing without adequately compensating the labs who perform the tests. … [Read more...]
Industry Buzz
COVID-19 Relief Bill Leaves Labs Out in the Cold
March 30, 2020
Labs who have answered the call to mobilize beyond capacity so that people can be tested for COVID-19 can be forgiven for thinking nobody in Washington “CARES” about them. What else are they supposed … [Read more...]
LDTs
Laboratory Developed Tests: The VALID Act is Back
March 18, 2020
With all the attention commanded by the coronavirus crisis, a potentially huge development affecting the future of the lab industry has flown under the radar. What’s at stake is the issue that has … [Read more...]
Congress Moves One Step Closer to Passing “Surprise Billing” Legislation
Prospects for the passage of legislation banning “surprise billing” of patients before the presidential election advanced significantly on Feb. 12 with the powerful House Ways and Committee … [Read more...]
EKRA: More than a Year Out, Major Questions Remain Unresolved
January 26, 2020
One of the scariest new lab compliance laws in recent memory is the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act of 2018 (EKRA). While laws banning remuneration in exchange for referrals is nothing new to … [Read more...]
EMPLOYMENT LAW UPDATE
Pay rates, vacations while recovering, gig economy
November 19, 2019
By Mike O’Brien bio Department of Labor enters final stage of update to ‘regular rate’ rule under FLSA. As we have discussed previously in these updates, the Department of Labor has been working to … [Read more...]
LEGISLATION
New Laws: Congress Tables Bill to Make Whole-Genome Sequencing Available to Medicaid Kids
August 26, 2019
In early August, Representatives Scott Peters (D-CA) and John Shimkus (R-IL) introduced in the US House of Representatives a bill to provide "certain undiagnosed children under the Medicaid program" … [Read more...]
NEWS
The President’s Proposed 2019 Federal Budget: The 6 Things Labs Must Know
May 6, 2019
While President Trump's proposed $4.75 trillion budget may be the largest in U.S. history, it calls for important cuts affecting health care in general and labs in particular. Here are the six things … [Read more...]
