The Changing Face of Medicare Reimbursement

AACC Audioconference: Oct. 2, 2007, 2–3:30 p.m.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is changing the way it makes coverage decisions and how it pays for services. The agency is working to make the Medicare decision-making process more transparent and efficient, while providing financial incentives to improve care. CMS is using a number of research and regulatory tools to accomplish these objectives.

Increasingly, the agency is using evidence-based-medicine (EBM) to evaluate new technologies and decide if, or under what circumstances, to pay for them. Further, CMS is expanding its use of quality indicators to evaluate provider performance and pay for services. This trend is likely to increase as CMS further develops and adopts an integrated electronic medical record.

During the 90-minute discussion on the following topics, you’ll learn what these changes mean for clinical laboratories and manufacturers. Topics include:

• How EBM is transforming the coverage decision process
• The impact of pay-for-performance on clinical laboratories
• How health IT will affect lab operations and costs
• The use and potential impact of comparative effectiveness