The bill, which will delay reporting of lab payment data required by PAMA, will now be passed on to the President, who is expected to sign it into law.
Efforts to pass a nationwide surprise billing law appear stalled for now, but state laws and proposals for federal legislation still loom large for labs.
These developments indicate that the law, which would delay the reporting of lab payment data required by PAMA, stands a good chance of passing in 2019.
Tempus said that Akesogen's lab provides a range of testing services, including for inherited risk of cancer, microbiome profiling, whole-genome genotyping, and more.
While pass-through billing has long been a regular part of the lab landscape, some newer arrangements run afoul of payor policies and anti-kickback laws.
Though the pace of Quest's acquisitions has slowed this year, the latest deal with BCL continues a string of activities resulting from the implementation of PAMA.
In the long term, the company is developing a plan to create more tests based on its technology, which digitizes blood samples and turns them into images.
The firm is offering total consideration of $1,018.36 per $1,000 for notes tendered by Dec. 2, which includes an early tender premium of $30 per $1,000.
Microbiology lab and industry stakeholders are increasingly working together to coordinate approaches and generate more clinical utility data for diagnostic testing.
The owner is accused of falsely billing Medicare for cancer genomic testing and pharmacogenetic testing that regularly exceeded $12,000 per beneficiary.
The firm said that it will use proceeds from the sale to purchase or repay other notes or loans, including up to $300 million in outstanding senior notes.
Comments from Quest suggest lab buys are becoming more complex while others suggest hospitals will remain reluctant to sell so long as premium pricing persists.
