[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 64 (Thursday, April 6, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E799]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


      H.R. 1386, THE CLINICAL LABORA- TORY ACT AMENDMENTS OF 1995

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                            HON. BILL ARCHER

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 5, 1995
  Mr. ARCHER. Mr. Speaker, I am introducing H.R. 1386 to reduce the 
burdens on physicians who perform laboratory tests in their offices and 
thereby, improve patient care and reduce patient costs. The Clinical 
Laboratory Improvement Act of 1988 [CLIA] has greatly increased health 
care costs associated with laboratory testing. Some physicians have 
reported that compliance with CLIA regulations have more than doubled 
the cost of providing tests in their offices. In fact, the Health Care 
Financing Administration estimated in 1992 that CLIA would add between 
$1.2 billion and $2.1 billion annually to the cost of performing 
clinical laboratory tests in a physicians office.
  The CLIA 1988 restrictions have caused thousands of physicians in 
their offices to discontinue all or some portion of essential clinical 
laboratory testing on site. This creates a barrier to patient 
compliance with diagnostic and treatment protocols and causing patient 
inconvenience. For example, for many tests a patient must be referred 
to an outside laboratory to have the specimen taken and tested. This 
poses a substantial hardship for many patients, most notably the 
elderly, the disabled and families who live in underserved areas. 
Oftentimes these patients cannot travel or find someone to taken them 
to these facilities. The result is that they do not obtain the 
necessary test which may interfere with their treatment.
  I hope that my colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, will join me 
in supporting this legislation which will reduce health care costs and 
improve the ability of patients to receive appropriate laboratory tests 
conveniently and in a timely fashion.


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