Laboratory Industry Report

Lab industry leaders are applauding a San Diego district court judge’s recent decision to temporarily halt the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) competitive bidding demonstration project. Of key importance is the presiding judge’s support of the plaintiff’s complaints that the demonstration would cause irreparable harm to both laboratories and Medicare beneficiaries in the San Diego metropolitan statistical area (MSA), said Alan Mertz, president of the American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA) at the organization’s annual meeting, held April 17-18 in Washington, D.C.