colLABoration: The Orchard Software Blog

Healthcare organizations, technology companies, academic organizations and other private sector businesses are aligning resources to form the COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition that is intended to “coordinate collective expertise, capabilities, data and insights to flatten the pandemic’s curve in order to preserve the healthcare delivery system and help protect U.S. populations.” 

As of April 1, the U.S. has more than 185,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 4,000 deaths. As the virus continues to spread and quarantine orders are issued across the nation, laboratories are working diligently to increase the ability to rapidly test for the virus, and federal rules are being temporarily adapted to help speed the process.

The Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA) Final Rule, published in June of 2016, continues to spark apprehension across the laboratory industry. However, in a change of pace at the end of 2019, the Laboratory Access for Beneficiaries (LAB) Act, that will delay the PAMA reporting cycle until 2021, was signed into law.