Medicare Payments for Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Tests in 2024

Medicare is the largest payer of clinical laboratory services in the United States. Medicare Part B covers most lab tests and pays 100 percent of allowable charges. The Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA), Pub. L. No. 113-93, requires the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to set payment rates for lab tests using current charges in the private health care market, under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act (PAMA, § 216(a)). On January 1, 2018, CMS began paying for lab tests under the new system mandated by PAMA. PAMA also requires OIG to publicly release an annual analysis of the top 25 laboratory tests by expenditures (Pub. L. No. 113-93 § 216(c)(2)(A)). In accordance with PAMA, we will publicly release an analysis of the top 25 laboratory tests by expenditures for 2024.

Announced or Revised	Agency	Title	Component	Report Number(s)	Expected Issue Date (FY)
June 2025	CMS	Medicare Payments for Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Tests in 2024	Office of Evaluation and Inspections	OEI-09-25-00330	2026