ASCP Calls On Lab Community to Contact Congress About Surprise Billing

On Aug. 1, ASCP released an action alert calling on pathologists and other laboratory professionals to contact their member of Congress about legislation being developed to protect patients from surprise billing, which occurs when patients receive unanticipated, often substantial, medical bills for care they thought was covered by their insurance. In its current form, the legislation Congress is considering would limit payment for out-of-network providers and healthcare facilities to the local, median payment rates. However, these rates can be insufficient to cover costs and when coupled with other recent threats to reimbursement, like the massive cuts to the Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, could adversely impact pathology and laboratory medicine and undermine patient access to essential medical services. To help address this problem, ASCP requests that you use the ASCP e-Advocacy website to urge Congress to include an independent dispute resolution process to help ensure pathology and laboratory medicine services are fairly compensated.