OIG Report Says CMS Must Improve Medicare Rate-Setting Procedures For Clinical Diagnostic Lab Tests

RevCycle Intelligence (4/12, LaPointe) said, “CMS’ procedures for setting Medicare rates for clinical diagnostic lab tests could improve for future public health emergencies, according to a new report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG).” In the report, “OIG said...that, during the COVID-19 public health emergency, current Medicare rate-setting procedures ‘did not allow the [Medicare Administrative Contractors] to set rates that were adequate to cover the cost of conducting COVID-19 viral tests for all laboratories during a time when CMS was working to increase testing capacity.’” The result is that “CMS may have missed opportunities to gather important information that could have enhanced its response to COVID-19 from laboratory associations.”