This is a recording of a session from the AMP 2020 Annual Meeting & Expo. Purchase the entire AMP 2020 Annual Meeting & Expo recordings for a significant discount!
The Economic Affairs Committee (EAC) discusses the lessons learned, and are still learning, about reimbursement policies for, needs of, and issues faced by laboratories during the COVID-19 public health emergency. While the Federal government endeavored to create new policies and adapt to the needs for diagnostic tests during the pandemic, some policies have created confusion for patients and laboratories. Looking forward, it is unclear how reimbursement policies will be maintained once the public health emergency is declared over. These uncertainties have resulted in great concerns within the laboratory community about maintaining COVID-19 testing capacity throughout the entire pandemic. Proper and flexible coverage and reimbursement policies need to be in place during a pandemic so that laboratories can continue to support the U.S. population’s public health needs and so that patients are able to easily access these crucial tests. The AMP EAC has worked avidly throughout 2020 to help elicit such an outcome. In this session, the panel has an in-depth discussion about the road-blocks that were encountered throughout coverage, coding, and pricing of COVID-19 diagnostic tests, and explores ideas that could help avoid these problems to quickly get high quality diagnostic tests to patients in future health emergencies.
Laboratory Economics During a Public Health Emergency: Lessons Learned (and still learning) from the
COVID-19 Pandemic
Samuel K. Caughron, MD, MAWD Pathology Group, Lenexa, KS, USA
Pranil Chandra, DO, FCAP, FASCP, PathGroup, Nashville, TN, USA
Jay L. Patel, MD, MBA, University of Utah and ARUP Laboratories, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Objectives:
- Understand process of coding, coverage and pricing during the pandemic.
- Explain the concerns that resulted from this unusual coding and pricing process.
- Discuss difficulties that your laboratory has had with coverage and reimbursement for COVID-19 diagnostic tests.
- Provide input on policies that AMP EAC is advocating for to develop a coding and reimbursement pathway
within CMS during future public health emergencies.
Recording Date: November 17, 2020
Continuing Education Credit Information
CME/CMLE credit: 1.50 hr
Last day to purchase course and CE claim credit: February 16, 2024
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