STOP LAB CUTS

• ASCP is asking everyone to contact their congressional representatives and urge them to enact the RESULTs Act

• Congressional deal to reopen the federal government postpones 2026 CLFS cuts 30 days

Calling all ASCP members and their colleagues! We need your help to get Congress to pass the RESULTS Act (The Reforming and Enhancing Sustainable Updates to Laboratory Testing Services Act [S. 2761 / H.R. 5269]). We are also requesting that laboratory directors ask their employer’s government relations team to provide support for this legislation. 

Why support the RESULTS Act? 

When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) revised payment rates per the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) in 2018, it caused a wave of massive cuts, totaling more than $4 billion in Medicare payments alone. In addition, insurers used CMS’s new rates to impose additional cuts in laboratory reimbursement. The result caused significant economic hardship for laboratories and laboratory staff. 

The RESULTS Act would reform PAMA using paid claims from a comprehensive commercial payor database. This would generally eliminate the need for laboratories to report data, and it would also provide CMS with more robust, reliable data for setting new payment rates. The RESULTS Act would also block further payment cuts until new rates can be set. CMS is currently preparing to cut payment for about 800 tests (about one third of all tests on the clinical laboratory fee schedule) by as much as 15 percent. These cuts would now go into effect on January 31, 2026, per the pending legislation to reopen the Federal government, providing more time to advocate for the RESULTS Act.

Endorsed by more than 30 organizations, ASCP and others anticipate that if the RESULTS Act becomes law, many payment rates would increase, and future cuts would be significantly lessened (maximum 5 percent cut allowed per year). This should help improve Medicare payment and help laboratories negotiate better rates with insurers. 

What can YOU do? 

ASCP is asking YOU to send a message to your representatives in Congress. Using the pre-drafted message on the STOP LAB CUTS Website, this should only take a few minutes. Click here to TAKE ACTION. In addition, we are asking each laboratory’s leadership to reach out their employer’s government relations team to snowball support for this legislation. ASCP is providing a draft letter to facilitate this request.