Medicare payments for lab tests to change in 2018

Does your office perform lab tests for Medicare beneficiaries? The amount of Medicare reimbursement your office receives for those tests is likely changing, and not positively.

Last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published preliminary payment rates and supporting data files(www.cms.gov) for services paid under the Medicare clinical lab fee schedule, effective Jan. 1.

CMS based these new payment rates on how much private insurers pay for lab tests, as reported by applicable labs. Initial indications are that Medicare payments for most tests will shrink 10 percent next year. CMS also released proposed rates for 2019 and 2020.

The preliminary payment determinations are open to public comment until Oct. 23. You may submit comments to CLFS_Annual_Public_Meeting@cms.hhs.gov.

– Kent Moore, Senior Strategist for Physician Payment for the American Academy of Family Physicians