Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center is the only fully automated hospital lab in central Ohio—and it is fighting for its life. Federal sanctions were imposed on the lab by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this summer, because it sent proficiency-test samples, intended for quality assurance, to other labs for testing. This practice is forbidden by federal regulations. The sanctions that have been leveled are severe: the lab is due to lose its eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid payments and to have its certification revoked. Ohio State has filed an appeal, asserting that its transfer of the test samples was unintentional and that it did not jeopardize any patients. The sanctions have been put on hold while an administrative law judge considers the appeal.
Legal and medical observers note that the federal government usually wins cases like these, but that the severity of the sanctions has sometimes been modified, particularly in cases where members of Congress have interceded on a lab’s behalf. That has occurred this time: Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, along with 11 members of the House of Representatives from the Buckeye state, have presented a bipartisan appeal to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to reduce the severity of the sanctions, which the legislators said would be detrimental to lab employees and patients. The American Clinical Laboratory Association called the situation a strong argument—it used the term “a poster child”—for federal legislation that would give CMS more flexibility in selecting sanctions. The ruling is being awaited beyond the borders of Ohio. Read more in a newspaper article from The Columbus Dispatch.
