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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  Tell them the demo is a bad concept and deserves to be repealed because: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!