John W. Sherer, MT(AMT) Chair, AMT Federal/Government Affairs committee

I am sending this attachment to all councilors and state presidents or other officers or board members where the state president doesn’t have e-mail.

I thought you might be interested in sharing with your members at fall meetings some of the hot topics being discussed by the Clinical Laboratory Coalition.  You could even use for your fall state publication if its not too late for that.

Certainly the Competitive bidding demonstration is the hottest topic and this was mandated under the Medicare Reform (Drug Prescription ) bill of 2003 so it is going to happen perhaps in 2005. We don’t know where or when but as we learn more about that, I will try to give you a heads up.  AMT has agreed to work with AAB on the Specimen Collection Bill to increase phlebotomy/draw fee from $ 3.00 to over $ 5.00, calculated at CPI over the last 19 years when it was set at $ 3.00.

I may be asking for help on this issue if it gets off the ground.  May I take this opportunity to thank each of you for your support while I was on the board and for your support of the legislative grass roots efforts we have initiated over the past several years.

As a profession, we simply must become more proactive so we don’t find ourselves out in left field being reactive.

Sincerely,

John W. Sherer, MT(AMT)

Chair, AMT Federal/Government Affairs committee

UPDATE ON CLINICAL LABORATORY COALITION ACTIVITIES

SEPTEMBER 22, 2004

During the G-2 Conference representatives of the Washington, DC Clinical Laboratory Coalition will meet with Linda Lobovic of CMS to discuss concerns regarding the competitive bidding demonstration.

BIDDING CONCERNS INCLUDE:

• Selection of Technical Experts to provide input to CMS on the project
• Open door forums with CMS for Clinical Laboratory Industry to respond to billing & reimbursement issues that would impact the industry as a result of competitive bidding
• Quality issues including TAT, Specimen integrity, impact on patient care, physicians, and other providers,
• Quality care to patients
• Impact on Public Health regarding timly compliance with reportable disease notifications
• Access issues
• Bidding must be for all laboratory tests to avoid cherry picking

OTHER COALITION CONCERNS OR ISSUES:

• Co-Payments
• CPI Unfreeze effort
• Open Door Forums
• Specimen Collection Bill –to increase drawing fee
• OIG Substantially in Excess exclusionary proposal
• New Medicare claims processing fee - $ 5.00 per claim if claim is returned/incomplete/or requires correction-amounts to CMS second handling fee