A federal district court May 5 vacated a preliminary injunction order blocking the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) from enforcing a provision in an anti-markup rule that would have made substantial changes to the way physicians bill for anatomic pathology diagnostic testing services (Atlantic Urological Associates PA v. Leavitt).

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the lawsuit filed by three urology physician groups, a pathologist, and Uropath LLC, a company managing pathology laboratories after finding they did not have standing to challenge a final order issued in January 2008 that delayed the anti-markup rule for some providers. The court determined that the plaintiffs did not demonstrate the final order caused them an injury likely to be remedied by a final decision. In addition, because Uropath and its director do not participate in Medicare, the district court held that they had no standing to challenge the anti-markup rule.

Even if the plaintiffs had standing, however, the court determined that the physician groups and the managing company must channel their objections to the anti-markup rule, published by CMS in November 2007, through the administrative process before going to court.

For more on the ruling, see the June issue of G-2 Compliance Report.