ACLA Urges Swift Congressional Action on Bipartisan RESULTS Act Following Energy & Commerce Hearing
Washington, D.C. — The American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA) today urged swift congressional action to advance the bipartisan Reforming and Enhancing Sustainable Updates to Laboratory Testing Services (RESULTS) Act at a hearing before the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health titled “Legislative Proposals to Support Patient Access to Medicare Services.”
ACLA President Susan Van Meter testified in support of the RESULTS Act, legislation designed to modernize Medicare laboratory payment policy, address longstanding flaws in the Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS), and protect patient access to timely, high-quality, and innovative diagnostic testing.
“Laboratory test results serve as the ‘GPS’ of health care decision-making, informing roughly 70 percent of medical decisions, while accounting for less than 1 percent of total Medicare spending,” Van Meter said at the hearing. “But without further intervention, approximately 800 laboratory tests will face additional payment reductions of up to 15 percent beginning January 31, 2026. Many of these are routine tests used every day to care for Medicare patients.”
Additional highlights from the hearing include:
- Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) questioned how data collection affects rate setting and diagnostic innovation. Van Meter emphasized that the RESULTS Act would give CMS access to current, representative commercial market data and help laboratories continue investing in innovative diagnostic tools, including advances in cancer detection.
- Health Subcommittee Chairman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) asked about the impact of Medicare payment cuts on commonly used diagnostic tests, including complete blood count (CBC) tests, and the consequences for patient access in communities nationwide.
- Democratic full committee and subcommittee ranking members Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) acknowledged the bipartisan support for RESULTS
- Health Subcommittee Vice Chair Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) raised concerns that, absent congressional action, laboratories would be required to report outdated pre-pandemic data, leading to inaccurate Medicare payment rates.
- Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), original RESULTS sponsor, highlighted the critical role clinical laboratories play in providing essential diagnostic information for patients, particularly seniors and those with rare diseases, and submitted a patient organization letter in support of the RESULTS Act for the hearing record. He noted, “Strong clinical laboratories are vital to delivering high-quality care, especially for seniors who depend on timely testing to maintain their health.”
- Rep. John Joyce (R-PA) noted, “This under-reimbursement is a dire threat to access for seniors across our country, and there are more cuts slated to occur if we in Congress fail to act. The payment reforms in the RESULTS Act have strong support from a diverse coalition that includes doctors, laboratories, hospitals, and diagnostic manufacturer organizations. I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.”
The CLFS, the only Medicare payment system Congress determined should approximate commercial market rates, suffers from significant, foundational flaws that have resulted in inaccurate, artificially low Medicare rates that to this day are based on incomplete and skewed data from 2016, collected from fewer than 1 percent of clinical laboratories.
The RESULTS Act would fix these problems. It would base CLFS rates on current, comprehensive, and representative commercial market data, establish guardrails to mitigate rate reductions, and prevent deep destabilizing payment cuts, while dramatically reducing administrative burden on laboratories and CMS.
“We are now 23 days away from Medicare cuts to about 800 tests of as much as 15 percent hitting laboratories across the country,” Van Meter added. “ACLA strongly endorses the RESULTS Act as a commonsense, smart policy approach to reforming the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule and preventing deep Medicare cuts from taking effect January 31.”
ACLA applauds bipartisan leadership on the RESULTS Act and urges Congress to act swiftly to advance this legislation and prevent further harm to patients and the laboratories that serve them.
ACLA’s full written testimony is available here.
To learn more about the RESULTS Act and ACLA’s efforts to stop harmful Medicare laboratory payment cuts, visit StopLabCuts.org.
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The American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA) is the national trade association representing leading laboratories that deliver essential diagnostic health information to patients and providers by advocating for policies that expand access to the highest quality clinical laboratory services, improve patient outcomes, and advance the next generation of personalized care.
