ACLA Statement on Support Necessary For Laboratories
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following ongoing developments related to COVID-19 testing and response, ACLA President Julie Khani issued the following statement:
“Labs are not scaling back. We’re ramping up. ACLA members are investing in additional high-throughput testing platforms, retraining staff, and working to anticipate the supply challenges we’ll face down the road.
During ACLA’s first meeting with the White House Coronavirus Task Force on March 4, we discussed what was needed to help labs rapidly scale up capacity and accelerate access to high-quality testing for patients across the country. Those three areas included ready access to supplies, adequate funding for labs performing the tests, and clear guidance to providers about who should be tested. ACLA members have now performed more than four million tests for COVID-19, and while the landscape of testing has changed, these three core needs remain unchanged.
The White House Coronavirus Task Force isn’t the only tool we have to address these challenges, but as we look to the levels of testing that will be needed in the weeks and months ahead, strong, clear, and nimble federal leadership is not optional.”
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ACLA is a not-for-profit association representing the nation’s leading clinical and anatomic pathology laboratories, including national, regional, specialty, hospital, ESRD and nursing home laboratories. The clinical laboratory industry employs nearly 295,000 people directly, and generates over 117,000 additional jobs in supplier industries. Clinical laboratories are at the forefront of personalized medicine, driving diagnostic innovation and contributing more than $106 billion to the nation’s economy.
