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- CSP and CAP Support Amending Medicaid Bill to Ensure Access for Pathology Patients
The Connecticut Society of Pathologists (CSP), with CAP support, urged the amending of Raised Bill 5459, to expressly include pathology and laboratory medicine under the category of "select providers." The current legislation omitted pathology and laboratory services from the definition of "select providers" that would benefit from a new rate methodology that would adjust Medicaid rates "to a specified percentage of Medicare for the same service." The CSP noted that pathology and laboratory services were included in a state issued report, released in February that found significant disparities in payment for pathology and laboratory services in the state Medicaid program when compared with a sample of five other states and Medicare. In submitted March 12 testimony[T(1] , the CSP stated: “The language of the definition in the legislation appears exclusionary as it does not state "including, but not limited to," which would allow pathology and laboratory medicine to be implicitly included as specialist services...” Both the CSP and the CAP believe that Medicaid payment rates should be raised to Medicare rates as part of ensuring access to heath care for Medicaid patients. Without payment levels commensurate with Medicare, Connecticut risks deterioration in quality and turn-around time, and loss of patient access to convenient on-site and specialized pathologist and laboratory services. The CSP noted “given the integral and omnipresent role of pathology and laboratory medicine in health care, especially cancer care, and the inclusion of such services in the Phase 1 Report, all these factors compellingly justify the amendment of Raised Bill 5459 to expressly include "pathology and laboratory services.” Learn more about how the CAP supports state pathology societies and partners with them to influence public policy. Link to PDF [T(1]
The Connecticut Society of Pathologists (CSP), with CAP support, urged the amending of Raised Bill 5459, to expressly include pathology and laboratory medicine under the category of "select providers." The current legislation omitted pathology and laboratory services from the definition of "select providers" that would benefit from a new rate methodology that would adjust Medicaid rates "to a specified percentage of Medicare for the same service." The CSP noted that pathology and laboratory services were included in a state issued report, released in February that found significant disparities in payment for pathology and laboratory services in the state Medicaid program when compared with a sample of five other states and Medicare.
In submitted March 12 testimony, the CSP stated: “The language of the definition in the legislation appears exclusionary as it does not state "including, but not limited to," which would allow pathology and laboratory medicine to be implicitly included as specialist services...”
Both the CSP and the CAP believe that Medicaid payment rates should be raised to Medicare rates as part of ensuring access to heath care for Medicaid patients. Without payment levels commensurate with Medicare, Connecticut risks deterioration in quality and turn-around time, and loss of patient access to convenient on-site and specialized pathologist and laboratory services.
The CSP noted “given the integral and omnipresent role of pathology and laboratory medicine in health care, especially cancer care, and the inclusion of such services in the Phase 1 Report, all these factors compellingly justify the amendment of Raised Bill 5459 to expressly include "pathology and laboratory services.”
Learn more about how the CAP supports state pathology societies and partners with them to influence public policy.