Laboratory Services: Introduction

(A) 130 CMR 410.455 through 410.459 establish the requirements and procedures for clinical laboratory services provided by hospital outpatient departments. A clinical laboratory service includes the following types of services: microbiological, serological, chemistry, hematological, radioimmunoassay, cytological, immunological, pathological, or other examinations of materials derived from the human body to provide information for the assessment of a medical condition or for the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of any disease. (B) The MassHealth agency does not pay separately for routine specimen collection and preparation for the purpose of clinical laboratory analysis (for example, venipuncture; urine, fecal, and sputum samples; Pap smears; cultures; and swabbing and scraping for removal of tissue.) Specimen collection and preparation is considered part of the laboratory service.