Pama Design Guide

Listing Results Pama Design Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the Pama program?

  Pama stands for Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 and was published by The White House Office of Management and Budget to modify the Medicare reimbursement rate methodology for lab services.

• Are Pama reporting requirements changing in 2021?

  However, with Congress passing the Laboratory Access for Beneficiaries (LAB) Act as part of an end-of-year spending package at the end of 2019, Pama reporting requirements were delayed for 1 year until January 1, 2021, to March 31, 2021.

• What is the Pama final rule?

  Pama stands for Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 and was published by The White House Office of Management and Budget to modify the Medicare reimbursement rate methodology for lab services. The Final Rule was published on June 17, 2016.

• When will Pama 2019 data be available?

  Round two for Pama is underway with the collection period of January – June 2019. Although the LAB Act pushes the reporting window for this data out by one year, the expanded definition of applicable laboratory that requires many hundreds more entities to report this time around.

• What is Pama CMS?

  What is Pama? On January 1, 2020, CMS implemented a new mandate - section 218 of Protecting Access to Medicare Act (Pama) - that changes the prior authorization process for ordering certain advanced diagnostic imaging

• What are Pama regulations?

  Pama Regulations. Advanced tests are tests furnished by only one laboratory that include a unique algorithm and, at a minimum, are an analysis of RNA, DNA or proteins or are cleared or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).