In a huge win for ASCP members, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced it adopted data from ASCP’s 2019 Wage Survey to update labor costs for laboratory personnel. The advocacy win was revealed in CMS’s CY 2023 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) Proposed Rule.
The policy change affects the proposed labor costs associated with services performed by histotechnologists. The change came as a result of research and advocacy by ASCP and College of American Pathologists staff. CMS’s policy change will have an important impact on the payment rates for pathology services, particularly those with significant technical component work performed by histotechnologists.
As a result of CMS adopting ASCP’s wage rate for histotechnologists, CMS also increased the clinical labor expenses associated with a second laboratory personnel category used by CMS, the “lab technician/histotechnologist.”
Prior to CMS proposing to update clinical labor costs, the labor costs for histotechnologists were set at 0.37¢ per minute for CY 2021. CMS will update the rate for histotechnologists to 0.64¢ per minute, an increase of 73 percent over the CY 2021 rate. For the lab technician/histotechnologist category, CMS will raise its clinical labor costs from 0.35¢ per minute to 0.60¢ per minute, a 70-percent increase.
CMS will be phasing in these new labor rates over several years. For CY 2023, the rate for histotechnologists will be 0.505¢ per minute, rising to 0.5725¢ per minute in CY 2024 and 0.64¢ per minute in CY 2025. For the lab
technician/histotechnologist category, the rate will be 0.473¢ per minute in CY 2023, to 0.5365¢ per minute in CY 2024, and 0.60¢ per minute in CY2025.
ASCP will be submitting formal comments to CMS to lock in these proposals. We will also be looking at opportunities to increase the clinical labor allowances for other categories of laboratory personnel used in the PFS.
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For more information regarding ASCP's advocacy initiatives and policy positions, please contact ASCP's Center for Public Policy at (202) 408-1110.
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