NerveCenter: Are federal laboratory regulations a double-edged sword?
✍ Scribed by Kathlyn Stone
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2011
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 261 KB
- Volume
- 70
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0364-5134
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Improvements
Act of 1988 (CLIA) established standards to improve the accuracy, reliability, and timeliness of patient test results. Although the standards were established to improve the process of delivering test results to patients, some suggest that CLIA regulations may be too restrictive and may actually hurt care for some patients with rare neurological disorders and other uncommon conditions.
Managed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), CLIA is funded by fees paid by approximately 190,000 laboratories that are certifi ed to conduct the tens of thousands of diagnostic tests used every day. Its goal, according to CMS, is to establish "quality standards for all laboratory testing to ensure the accuracy, reliability, and timeliness of patient test results, regardless of where the test was performed." These rules, along with state standards, regulate the performance and reporting of clinical laboratory tests. By requiring laboratories to meet certain standards there is more conformity across laboratories.