PAMA Related Cuts and Reporting Delayed

The “Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act” which was passed in December halted numerous 2022 Medicare Cuts including PAMA-related cuts to the clinical lab fee schedule and delayed PAMA reporting another year.   

• Next CLFS Data Reporting Period for Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Tests – DELAYED. On December 10, 2021, the “Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act” (S. 610) was passed and delayed the reporting requirement under Section 1834A of the Act and also delayed the application of the 15% phase-in reduction.
• Section 1834A of the Act, as established by Section 216(a) of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA), required significant changes to how Medicare pays for Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Tests (CDLTs) under the CLFS. The CLFS final rule “Medicare Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Tests Payment System Final Rule” (CMS-1621-F) was published in the
• Federal Register on June 23, 2016. The CLFS final rule implemented section 1834A of the Act. Under the CLFS final rule, reporting entities must report to CMS certain private payer rate information (applicable information) for their component applicable laboratories. The data collection period (the period where applicable information for an applicable laboratory is obtained from claims for which the laboratory received final payment during the period) was from January 1, 2019, through June 30, 2019.
• The next data reporting period of January 1, 2023, through March 31, 2023, will be based on the original data collection period of January 1, 2019, through June 30, 2019.
• After the next data reporting period, there is a three-year data reporting cycle for CDLTs that are not ADLTs, (that is 2026, 2029, etc.).
• The statutory phase-in of payment reductions resulting from private payor rate implementation is extended, that is, through CY 2024. There is a 0.0 percent reduction for CYs 2021 and 2022, and payment may not be reduced by more than 15 percent for CYs 2023 through 2025.

Source: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/ClinicalLabFeeSched/PAMA-Regulations