Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

CMS to halt April implementation.The new requirement for physician signatures on lab test requisitions won't happen after all, according to a CMS statement to lab groups that lobbied to halt the change.First the Jan. 1, then the April 1 deadlines passed for referring physicians and non-physician practitioners (NPP) to personally sign all paper requisitions for clinical lab tests.Labs breathe sigh of relief: "The new policy was going to mean a big change, because existing Medicare policy specifically does not require a physician signature on clinical lab test requisitions," says Stan Werner, MT (ASCP), administrative director of Peterson Laboratory Services PA in Manhattan, Kan.Lab Groups Announce CMS RetractionThe American Association of Bioanalysts (AAB) and National Independent Laboratory Association (NILA) -- groups that spearheaded a lobbying effort against the physician signature rule -- announced that CMS "has determined the physician signature rule is unworkable and that the best thing to do is to pull [...]