Lab Group, Hospitals Say CMS Needs More Discretion in CLIA Enforcement

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services needs to allow itself more discretion in implementing the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA), hospital and clinical laboratory stakeholder groups said in comment letters to the agency on a recent proposed rule regarding rural health clinics and labs.

The American Hospital Association (AHA) and the American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA) told the CMS that its proposal to penalize clinical laboratories that send proficiency testing (PT) samples to an outside laboratory for analysis didn’t take full advantage of the discretion given to it under the Taking Essential Steps for Testing (TEST ) ...