Senate bill would repeal competitive bidding demo
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
A Senate bill (S. 2099) to repeal CMS' competitive bidding demonstration project for clinical laboratories is introduced Sept. 26 and applauded by the American Clinical Laboratory Association. ACLA is lobbying Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) to attach language in the bill to a separate package of Medicare reform provisions that Congress is expected to consider this year. Introduced by Sens. Ken Salazar (D-Col.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the bill mirrors similar legislation in the House (H.R. 3453) to stop CMS from carrying out the demonstration project to assess the cost-saving potential of replacing Medicare's lab fee schedule with prices based on the lowest bids from labs ("1The Gray Sheet" Aug. 13, 2007, p. 8)