UPDATE ON PENDING LEGISLATION: YOUR SUPPORT IS NEEDED!

The companion bill, S.3391, is currently pending in the Senate. There is still time to contact your Senator to help this bill also pass by year's end. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and John Boozman (R-AR) have introduced S.3391, The Taking Essential Steps for Testing Act (or the "TEST Act”). The proposed legislation would address a lack of regulatory flexibility in the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) by granting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) the discretion to not revoke a clinical laboratory’s CLIA certificate for the unintentional referral of proficiency testing samples to other laboratories.

CMS would be permitted to impose intermediate sanctions prior to revoking a CLIA certificate under circumstances where a proficiency testing sample was referred to another laboratory for confirmatory testing or because the laboratory in question does not offer a specific test.

CLMA strongly encourages its members to call or write your Senators and Representatives to support this bill. You can find a list of Senators and their contact information here and a list of Representatives and their contact information here. Your support is crucial, so please take a few minutes right now to send a quick message! To view the official letters of support from CLMA for S.3391, please click here and H.R.6118, please click here.