PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text of measure as introduced: CR S6519-6521)
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Jun 20, 2001
Medicare Patient Access to Preventive and Diagnostic Tests Act - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) establish procedures for determining the basis for, and amount of, Medicare payment for any clinical diagnostic laboratory test with respect to which a new or substantially revised Health Care Financing Administration Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) code is assigned on or after January 1, 2002; (2) set the national fee schedule amounts for tests performed; (3) establish a mechanism for review of the adequacy of payment amounts for a particular test; and (4) prohibit the Secretary from delegating the authority to make determinations with respect to clinical diagnostics laboratory tests to a regional office of the Health Care Financing Administration or to a certain contracted entity.Prohibits the Secretary from establishing a payment level for a new test that is lower than the level for an existing, clinically similar test solely on the basis that the new test may be performed by a laboratory with a certificate of waiver under the Public Health Services Act.
People & committees
Sen. Hatch, Orrin G. [R-UT] · R–UT
Legislative record
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text of measure as introduced: CR S6519-6521)
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S6519)
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
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Source last updated: Aug 19, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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