The FDA has issued an alert on Biotin in blood or other samples taken from patients who are ingesting high levels of biotin in dietary supplements can cause clinically significant incorrect lab test results. The FDA has seen an increase in the number of reported adverse events, including one death, related to biotin interference…
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released its final rates for the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) that will phase-in a significant cut in the rates of those common tests physicians use every day to diagnose and treat patients. The first cut is 10% effective January 1, 2018. The Protecting Access to…
New Reportable Disease: Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis Overview: An unknown strain of Bacillus cereus causing anthrax-like disease was first isolated in a dead chimpanzee in Côte d’Ivoire in 2001 and again in 2002. Following in 2004 and 2006, researchers isolated samples from another chimpanzee and a western lowland gorilla further East in Cameroon. Although anthrax…
One solution to the problem of the increasing number of laboratory job vacancies in the U.S. is to provide financial support to aspiring laboratorians in Medical Laboratory Science or Technology programs. That is why COLA, a national leader in lab testing accreditation and an advocate for quality in laboratory medicine and patient care, has medical laboratory…
Agency offers healthcare providers flexibilities to ensure continued access to care for patients Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma today announced new efforts underway at the agency to support millions of Americans impacted by Hurricane Harvey. The ongoing response at CMS is focused on helping Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, providers, facilities…
For those laboratories affected by Hurricane Harvey and may or may not be receiving proficiency testing (PT) samples or who cannot test those samples for the last part of 2017 second event and the 2017 third event will need to contact their PT providers for instructions on how to fill out their PT paperwork. COLA…
Our interconnected society makes it vital that our public health professionals get real-time access to diagnostic information for quick identification of the disease and treatment. However, potentially devastating cuts to the Medicare Clinical Lab Fee Schedule from the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) could hurt all laboratories but particularly hard hit will be rural…
