tci Part B Insider - 2003 Issue 26

Physician Notes: Pathology Services Payments Could Face an Overhaul

Hospitals and laboratories will be negotiating a flurry of new contracts soon if the General Accounting Office gets its way.  In a recent report, the GAO calls on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to stop making direct payments to laboratories for technical pathology services outsourced by hospitals.  Instead, hospitals should foot the bill themselves and work out appropriate terms with laboratories that they outsource to.  Such a policy would have saved Medicare $42 million in 2001, the GAO maintains - and saved beneficiaries $2 million in copayments. The watchdog agency argues that ending direct...

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