In a
letter to U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, ASCP urged the Department to permanently continue the enforcement discretion it has provided pathologists and laboratory personnel to remotely review pathology slides, clinical laboratory data, and test results.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, ASCP persuaded the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to allow pathologists and laboratory personnel to review slides remotely, without the need for a separate Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) certificate. This was necessary to reduce the likelihood of COVID-19 being passed around in laboratory settings, which in turn also had the potential to protect the timely review of patient specimens. On this effort, ASCP, the Association for Pathology Informatics, the College of American Pathologists and others partnered, working with Congress and CMS to make this happen.
In a 2020 CLIA memo (
QSO-20-21-CLIA), CMS announced that “Recognizing the urgency of the public health emergency and…to avoid exposure risks to healthcare providers, patients, and the community, [it was] exercising enforcement discretion to ensure pathologists may review pathology slides remotely.” ASCP later clarified with CMS that this policy applied to other laboratory professionals as well.
However, now that President Biden has announced plans to end the Public Health Emergency on May 11, CMS has indicated it is reviewing the need to continue this policy. Accordingly, ASCP is urging U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to make this policy permanent.
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