Report Finds Medicare Part B Lab Test Spending Jumped $1.3 Billion in 2021

A newly released report by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that Medicare Part B spending on lab testing jumped by $1.3 billion in 2021 from 2020. This 17% increase brought the total spending on laboratory tests to $9.3 billion. A key driver of the spike comes from mass utilization of COVID-19 testing.

According to Victoria Bailey, “Medicare Part B spent $2 billion on COVID-19 tests, signifying a 29 percent increase ($440 million) from 2020. Medicare paid for COVID-19 tests across 26 procedure codes, including antibody tests, panel tests, high-throughput tests, and a new code that incentivized faster test turnaround times. In addition, the volume of COVID-19 tests that Medicare Part B paid for increased by 37 percent from 18.8 million tests in 2020 to 25.8 million in 2021. More than 10 million people received at least one COVID-19 test paid for by Medicare Part B in 2021, compared to 8.5 million in 2020.”

To read more, click here.

(RevCycleIntelligence, December 27^th, 2022)