Court Denies Motion for Summary Judgement In ACLA's PAMA Lawsuit

On Friday, September 21, 2018, the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., denied the American Clinical Laboratory Association's (ACLA's) motion for Summary Judgement in a case challenging CMS's methodology in determining weighted medians for Medicare Part B's 2018 Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS).

The D.C. District Court refused to consider the merits of ACLA's case, instead ruling that the court does not have "subject matter jurisdiction" because Section 216 of the PAMA statute prohibits administrative or judicial review. The Court ruled, in effect, that PAMA's prohibition against judicial review covers the entire statute and that CMS's determination of the weighted medians cannot be challenged regardless of the reasonableness, or fairness, of CMS's methodology. View Court Ruling Here.