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Legislative Alert
Support
House and Senate Bills to Repeal Competitive Bidding Demo for
Medicare Lab Services
Immediate Contact Needed to Members of Congress
At the
urging of the Clinical Laboratory Coalition, legislation has been introduced
in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate to halt the Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) clinical laboratory services
competitive bidding demonstration project. The bills would repeal the
section of the Medicare law that requires CMS to conduct the demo in two
metropolitan areas.
The House bill, H.R. 3453, was
introduced August 4, 2007, by Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Chairwoman of the
House Small Business Committee. The Senate version,
S. 2099, was introduced September 26,
2007, by Senators Ken Salazar (D-CO), Pat Roberts (R-KS), and Maria Cantwell
(D-WA).
Each
of the bills would repeal subsection 1847(e) of the Social Security Act (42
U.S.C. § 1395w‑3(e)),
which requires CMS to conduct the demo. CMS is otherwise expected to
announce the locations and final details of the demo at any time.
HERE’s WHAT TO DO:
Go to the websites of your U.S. Senators and your Congressional Representative. You can find links to those websites by going to www.congress.org, then entering your zip code where indicated. Once you have accessed your legislators’ website, find the feature that allows you to send an e-mail message to their office directly through the web page (look for a menu item that says “Contact Us” or “E-mail the Senator,” or a similar link).
When
contacting your Senators and Representative, urge them
to
support
H.R. 3453
(in the House) and
S. 2099 (in
the Senate). Tell them the bill will repeal
a misguided provision of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and
Modernization Act of 2003 that requires CMS to conduct a competitive bidding
demonstration for Medicare laboratory services. Tell them the demo is a bad
concept and deserves to be repealed because:
-
It will harm beneficiaries by limiting their choices of labs, and in
many cases requiring seniors to travel to new, unfamiliar and
inconvenient patient service centers to have their blood drawn
-
By completely excluding non-winning labs from Medicare, the demo will
drive some labs out of business – especially smaller labs – thereby
decreasing overall competition in the demo areas.
-
Laboratory services are not fungible commodities like wheel chairs,
canes, and beds. They are complex medical services that can vary
depending upon the setting, patient acuity, the required turnaround
time, and a host of other factors.
- Lab services are not overpriced. Medicare pays for them under a fee schedule that has been reduced by about 40% in inflation-adjusted terms since 1984. Lab services account for only about 1.6% of Medicare spending, but lab results are used in 70% of medical decision-making.
With your help, the Medicare competitive bidding demonstration can be defeated. Please write your Congressional Representatives and Senators today!
Legislative Legislative Supplement Guest Editor
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