ACLA Statement on White House Meeting
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following today’s meeting at the White House, ACLA President Julie Khani issued the following statement:
“ACLA appreciated the opportunity to meet today with President Trump, Vice President Pence and other members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Representing the backbone of our nation’s testing response, ACLA members have now performed 3.2 million tests and remain focused on continuing to increase our COVID-19 testing capacity for both molecular and serologic tests.
In the meeting, ACLA communicated the importance of labs having the resources they need to perform high-throughput, accurate testing for patients. The administration has taken several important actions to support expanded testing capacity, including increasing the Medicare reimbursement rate for molecular tests, allowing laboratories to bring on additional testing platforms and increase testing for high-risk populations such as nursing home residents. The FDA also recently expanded the types of swabs that can be used for specimen collection, which is critical to reducing the bottlenecks that have limited COVID-19 testing.
Today, ACLA members stand ready to perform more testing and are working directly with governors to support state-led efforts across the country. To meet the goals put forth by our federal government, laboratories will need additional support. ACLA has urged HHS to allocate a portion of the $25 billion test fund to provide direct support to laboratories performing COVID-19 testing. In order to deliver accurate, reliable results for patients at a national scale, we must allocate funding to support their expanded efforts. We will continue to work closely with the administration and Congress to ensure that all laboratories performing high-quality COVID-19 testing have the necessary resources to expand testing capacity.”
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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.
