Bradley Merrill Thompson, a Member of the Firm in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice, in the Washington, DC, office, was quoted in an article titled "New Law Cuts Medicare Payments for Clinical Tests," written by Richard Parks.
Following is an excerpt:
In February, President Obama signed into law the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act. The legislation included a number of budget cuts to pay for these benefits, including a 2% cut in the Medicare Clinical Lab Fee Schedule. ?...
Industry analysts believe that IVD manufacturers will likely encounter pressure to contain or lower prices. The 2% across the board cut will also hurt the clinical labs, which will lead them to put price pressure on the manufacturers.
Thompson said, "Congress seems very concerned about waste and finding ways to simply be more efficient in our delivery of healthcare. The evidence concerning personalized medicine strongly suggests that a lot of therapies don't work for everyone, and that if we had more accurate diagnostic information, we could do a far better job of tailoring therapies to the unique genetic makeup of the individual patient."
Thompson continued, "That both improves outcomes by avoiding unnecessary side effects and reduces cost associated with ineffective treatments. Indeed, we don't even have to get to the level of personalized medicine to understand that diagnostics guide accurate diagnosis and treatment. So how does Congress respond? They cut payment for diagnostics used to drive 70% of healthcare decision-making, potentially leaving physicians to treat their patients in the dark. It simply makes no sense. In that environment, innovation and the development of new tests will be far more difficult and limited."
