A new government report finds that oversight of medical laboratories is often not strict enough to ensure the integrity of test results. The Government Accountability Office released a report Wednesday prompted by failures two years ago at the lab at Maryland General Hospital in Baltimore. The GAO concludes that CMS oversight of clinical labs often ranges from poor to nonexistent, which has led some laboratories to take advantage of the situation. The authors argue that more frequent unannounced inspections by CMS regulators and surveying organizations are needed.
- read this article from the Baltimore Sun
PLUS: The full text of the GAO's "Clinical Lab Quality" report is available here. (Warning: big pdf). Report