ASCP/ASCP BOC Advocacy Win: CMS Repeals Nursing Degree Policy

CMS Final Rule abandons proposal to allow individuals with a bachelor’s degree in nursing to perform high complexity testing

ASCP and the ASCP Board of Certification (ASCP BOC) are thrilled that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have abandoned plans to allow individuals with a Bachelor of Nursing degree to perform high complexity testing. Not only did ASCP and the ASCP BOC succeed in preventing Bachelor of Nursing degrees from qualifying individuals to perform high complexity testing, but we also succeeded in reversing CMS’s policy of considering nursing degrees as equivalent to biology degrees. CMS stated in the Final Rule that nursing degrees do not provide sufficient instruction in the applicable sciences to perform high complexity laboratory testing under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) of 1988. The Final Rule provides quality patient care with a massive advocacy win.

ASCP and ASCP BOC vigorously opposed the nursing degree proposal, leading other laboratory organizations in opposition and securing more than 20,000 comments opposing the proposal from ASCP members, BOC credential holders, and other members of the laboratory community. (Almost 99 percent of all comments received by CMS came from ASCP’s eAdvocacy grassroots efforts.) The CLIA nursing degree policy has been a significant concern to ASCP and the ASCP BOC for years. Given the proposed policy’s potential impact on quality testing and patient care, its repeal is one of our most important advocacy accomplishments.

In addition to the win on the nursing degree policy, CMS adopted several other ASCP/ASCP BOC recommendations including: (1) establishing a degree equivalency requirement, (2) eliminating physical science as a recognized degree for high complexity testing, (3) clarifying training and experience requirements, (4) adopting updated degree nomenclature for medical laboratory science, and (5) updating the CLIA high complexity personnel requirements for individuals completing a military laboratory training program.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published its CLIA Final Rule on December 28. For more information on the Final Rule, ASCP has provided a detailed memo here.

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