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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | March 21, 2023 04:10 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Rosemary M. Brown and Sen. Tracy Pennycuick, Sen. Lynda Schlegel Culver |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Licensed Clinical Laboratory Advertisement Modernization |
| In the near future, we intend to introduce legislation, similar to House Bill 1443 of the 2021-22 legislative session, providing for modernization of advertising for licensed clinical laboratories. State and federally licensed clinical laboratories serve as a critical part of our healthcare delivery system, with laboratory tests and procedures informing 70% of healthcare decisions. As our state and the nation’s healthcare system continues to grow and evolve, consumers are demanding greater transparency and to be more engaged in how healthcare is delivered to them. Despite that, Pennsylvania’s outdated clinical laboratory regulations, adopted in the late 1960’s, currently prohibit the advertisement of the availability of clinical laboratory diagnostic testing and services to the Commonwealth’s general public. We learned throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting expansion of telehealth services, that it has never been more important for consumers to be provided with information concerning the availability of clinical diagnostic laboratory testing options available to them. Hence, we plan to introduce legislation to permit clinical laboratories to publicly advertise the availability of clinical diagnostic testing services throughout the state that includes important consumer protections. This legislation would continue to require a Pennsylvania licensed physician’s script for the ordering of diagnostic testing and the physician ordered tests would be required to be processed by a licensed clinical laboratory. Pennsylvania is the last state in the nation to prohibit state and federally licensed clinical laboratories from advertising the availability of their diagnostic testing to Commonwealth consumers. We believe permitting outreach to Pennsylvania consumers with accurate, scientifically based diagnostic information can be a source of personalized, highly relevant insight to help foster better, more informed dialogue with licensed healthcare providers, which enables Pennsylvania consumers to take action to improve their health. It is important to note that House Bill 1443 of 2021-22 received unanimous support from the Senate Health & Human Services Committee last session. Please join us in cosponsoring this important legislation. If you have any questions regarding this legislation, please contact Christine Zubeck at 717-787-6123 or czubeck@pasen.gov. Thank you for your consideration. |
Introduced as SB712