Medicare Payments for Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Tests in 2017: Year 4 of Baseline Data

Effective in 2018, the Medicare program changed the way it sets payment rates for clinical diagnostic laboratory (lab) tests. CMS replaced payment rates with new rates based on charges in the private health care market. This is the first reform in 3 decades to Medicare's payment system for lab tests. As part of the same legislation reforming Medicare's payment system, Congress mandated that OIG monitor Medicare payments for lab tests and the implementation and effect of the new payment system for those tests. This data brief provides the fourth set of annual baseline analyses of the top 25 lab tests.