High-volume labs that test for COVID-19 at nursing homes have seen their pay doubled under a new policy from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services aimed at boosting testing and tracking capacity.
Medicare began paying $100 for COVID-19 clinical diagnostic lab tests using high throughput technology as of April 14, until the current national emergency is over.
The policy rewards systems that use highly sophisticated equipment operated by specially trained technicians to process 200 or more specimens per day, officials said.
Local Medicare Administrative Contractors remain responsible for developing the payment amount in their respective jurisdictions for other COVID-19 laboratory tests. Currently, MACs paid approximately $51 for those. As with other laboratory tests, there generally is no beneficiary cost-sharing under original Medicare.
“This is an absolute game-changer for nursing homes,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said.
Better identification of COVID-19-positive patients will lead to better isolation practices, which will result in decreasing the virus’ spread, she said. Many labs had capacity to test but were not doing so due to reimbursement levels that had probably been too low for the work involved, she pointed out.
