Capitol Hill In Brief

House bill would let labs bill Medicare directly: Reps. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Tim Murphy, R-Pa., introduced the "Patient Access to Critical Lab Tests Act" (H.R. 1699) March 25 to allow independent clinical laboratories to directly bill Medicare Part B for complex diagnostics - instead of relying on the treating hospital as an intermediary. The bill, which is supported by the American Clinical Laboratory Association, will allow independent labs offering genetic and molecular tests and other personalized medicine diagnostics to bypass current Medicare rules requiring hospitals to pay laboratories for the tests and later bill Medicare for reimbursement. "Unfortunately, today's arcane Medicare billing regulations often discourage hospitals from ordering these potentially life-saving tests for their patients," Altmire said. A companion bill has yet to be introduced in the Senate