Medicare Part B spending on clinical laboratory services continues to increase, with 2008 spending totaling $7.3 billion, an increase of over 3 percent from 2007 totals, according to the latest data from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’s 2009 Medicare Trustees Report. The Medicare program covered a total of 45.2 million enrollees in 2008.

Total Medicare program spending increased by 8.4 percent to reach $468 billion in 2008, as compared with $431.7 billion in 2007. This means that Part B lab services spending made up 1.6 percent of the total Medicare spending for last year. Of the $7.3 billion total for Part B lab services, 59 percent or $4.3 billion was comprised of spending for lab-related carrier services—which include independent and physician office labs. This is an increase of 4 percent over 2007’s total of $4.1 billion. Forty-one percent—or $3 billion—was from intermediary lab-related services, which include hospital outpatient and outreach testing services. This represents an increase of 2.5 percent from 2007’s total of $2.9 billion.

For more on this story, please read the June issue of Laboratory Industry Report.