CMS Proposes 20% Increase to CLIA Fees

Today, December 31, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a 20% "Across the Board" fee increase for CLIA Certificate Fees (except for Certificates of Recognition), Compliance Fees, and Additional Fees.

CMS states that CLIA's Certificate Fees were last updated in 1997, and the other fees have not been updated since 1992.

The fee increase was published in the December 31, 2018, Federal Register as a Notice of a Proposed Fee Increase with (public) Comment Period. View the PDF.

Public comments must be submitted by March 1, 2019.

In response to CMS's January 9, 2018, Request for Information (RFI) about raising CLIA fees, NILA requested a full financial report on CLIA's income and expenses for the prior three fiscal years.

But in order to get any information about CLIA's finances, NILA was instructed, by CMS, to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, which NILA did on February 14, 2018.

CMS responded in May 2018 to NILA's FOIA request by supplying CLIA's total income and total expenses, with no detail about the expenses. NILA filed a second FOIA request on June 14, 2018, requesting a breakdown of CLIA's expenses for fiscal years 2015, 2016, and 2017. CMS denied NILA's request for an expedited response, and since then CMS has provided no additional CLIA financial data to NILA.

NILA believes it cannot determine the necessity of a CLIA fee increase without a financial report detailing the CLIA program's expenses. Therefore, NILA will again request a full reporting of the CLIA program's expenses before deciding whether to support or oppose the proposed December 31, 2018, CLIA fee increases.