As promised at the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee (CLIAC) meeting last month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released revised interpretive guidance relating to the electronic exchange of laboratory information and further identifying authorized individuals who may receive laboratory test results information.

The guidance was issued by CMS’s Center for Medicaid and the State Operations/Survey and Certification Group.

The revision on electronic exchange of laboratory information offers interpretive guidance on surveying laboratories that use Health Information Technology (HIT) for the electronic exchange of laboratory information. The revisions focus on data to be included under existing retention requirement; additional considerations laboratories need to take into account with using HIT for the electronic exchange of laboratory information; and an explanation on how to manage corrected laboratory reports for an electronic health record.

The revision on authorized individuals offers interpretive guidance for the exchange of laboratory information by allowing laboratory results to be sent to the authorized individual and others designated by the authorized individual to receive the information.

The entire set of revisions went into effect on March 1, 2010.